Vexing delay for thousands seeking citizenship

This is from Malaysian Insider quoting the Straits Times of Singapore ( also available in The Korean Herald):

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — Malek Ali recently lost two staff members of the radio station he runs for a reason he sees as unnecessary.

One was an Australian radio station engineer and the other was the man’s Malaysian wife. The couple returned to Australia after the husband could not renew his work permit.

“These are good people. He was among the best in his field,” Malek said. “He and his wife are now contributing to the Australian economy.”

That was a stark contrast to his own experience — in Singapore.

In 2000, he became a permanent resident there, while working for the Singapore operations of a Malaysian company. Six months later, he was asked if he wanted to apply for citizenship.

He did not. He came back to start the BFM radio station, but without his family. He felt it was better for them to continue living across the Causeway. He commutes every weekend to Singapore.

Malek’s stories tell a succinct tale of the double whammy Malaysia is facing in the global grab for talent. Its citizens are being wooed by other countries, while its labyrinthine process of applying for permanent residence or even work permits drives away those who might want to stay.

This is not a new story. But it came to the forefront last week when complaints poured out on Internet forums after the Home Ministry held a high-profile exercise to award citizenships to 92 people.

The 92 were among the 33,000 “stateless” persons in the country. Most of them were born in Malaysia, but did not have legal papers as their births were never registered or the papers lost.

Among them was Leong Chwee Chun, 64. She had waited 36 years after her papers were lost during the Japanese Occupation.

But many of the best-qualified of these “stateless” residents have not stayed. Some left long ago, frustrated with inconclusive outcomes of their applications.

Plain-speaking Gerakan politician Dr Hsu Dar Ren tells of a former classmate who did not have citizenship, even though he was born in pre-independence Malaya, because his mother did not apply for it then.

The classmate was consistently top in his class and was later offered a scholarship to study in Singapore, where he became a citizen after graduating as an engineer. No one could blame him.

“The brain drain is really one of the biggest problems in Malaysia today, and this sort of thing does not help,” said Dr Hsu.

The citizenship ceremony was held with pomp last week to showcase the Home Ministry’s pledge to clear the backlog of applications by the year end. It has already processed 70 per cent of the 32,927 outstanding applications for citizenship, 16,812 for permanent residency and 93,360 cases of late registration of births.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein did not say how many of the applications were successful.

Malaysia’s difficulty in retaining talent has become more acute as the government tries to lift the economy up and out of the low-cost, low-wages model. It needs to replace brawn with brains.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had asked the government’s Economic Council for a new economic model to emphasise innovation and creativity.

But as Malaysians like Malek have noted, this requires being more efficient about keeping talent. The Malaysian process is opaque and convoluted and the delays are legendary.

Many have complained that they are kept in the dark about the criteria — unlike countries such as Australia, which uses a clear points system.

There is widespread belief that much hinges on what Dr Hsu describes as “a numbers game”. In a country where race is linked to power, the racial balance is always part of the consideration.

It may not be an official policy, but there are scores of stories that hint of unspoken racial considerations.

But as it has been pointed out, even if they number in the thousands, new immigrants will hardly change Malaysia’s demography.

“The demographic trend clearly shows that the major ethnic group is going to form a bigger and bigger proportion of the total population as time goes on,” said Dr Hsu.

The pledge to clear the huge backlog — which is part of the Home Ministry’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) — is welcomed, but it will not go very far as long as the process itself is not reformed.

Management-style KPIs may focus on statistics, but not necessarily the right decisions.

“They can easily say ‘no’ to everyone and meet the KPI,” said Malek. “But we haven’t done what is needed — provide a clear policy, transparency and speed.” — The Straits Times

 

 

Please read my article on this issue:  A most frustrating hassle.

Winning the penny and losing the pound

From a few reliable sources, the UMNO  candidate for the coming by election in NS will most likely to be the former MB, who was once suspended from the party because of money politics.

While the chances of winning for UMNO is greatly enhanced by this person, since the area is his base and stronghold, the selection of this person as a candidate will have great repercussions.

After 308, BN parties have been talking about changes. But fOr most of the component parties other than UMNO, they cannot change much within the confines of BN politics, since in the reality of Malaysian power politics, UMNo holds sway of the direction and determines major policies that the government  implemements. What can smaller parties like MCA, Gerakan , PPP etc do to change the perception of the people towards the coaltion? Nothing major except by voicing out more often  within the Barisan, and small cosmetics changes like strengthening bureaus and be more vocal in public.

Apart from these minor cosmetic changes, the fate of all the component parties is in the hand of UMNo, and if UMNo fails to convince the people that it is truly reforming, the fate of all other component parties is sealed…

UMNO of course knows about this and its top leaders are trying very hard to introduce reform. So far, certain changes have been slowly introduced, like  in the concept of KRAs and KPIs, and the promise of tackling corruption and bad governance. 

 While there are promises and professed intentions of tackling corruptions ,  people are still waiting to see any concrete evidence of whether the government is sincere in dealing with this rogue problem which has so often been the cause of the falls of empires and dynasties in the past.  The ruling coalition must be committed and show that it has the resolve to walk the talk.

Even though  the ACA has given way to MACC with more bits and power, the perception has remained negative. In fact, ask the people living in Klang Vallye, and most of them will say that they do not believe that corruption level will come down.

What is needed for BN in general and UMNO in particular is to make radical changes and show the people that it is 100percent committed to push through these changes.

One of the most pressing things to do is to select people with good standing, with no baggage and seen to be clean and conscientious to be their leaders and candidates.

What better chance to prove than in the selection of candidates for the various by elections ? In the present situation where the credibility of the various component parties is so low, the first and foremost consideration for any selection of candidates should be that the person must be very clean and with untainted background.  In by elections, where the winning or losing of the seats does not affect the balance of power, winnability of the seat should be secondary.

In the last by election in Penang, Permatang Pasir, a person with a certain baggage was chosen, and people all over West malaysia could not believe that the coalition is serious to want to change for the better. What else to explain how a person who has a baggage was chosen; except for people to come to the conclusion that lessons of 308 have not been fully understood and learned.

So with the coming by election, winnability should again be secondary. What is of primary importance is to project a determination to change for the better, and what better chance than to show to the whole country that a powerful warload with a past will be sidelined and a clean candidate be chosen, a person with an impeccable past and is sincere in serving the rakyat with conscience and hard work. Do not tell me that there are no such candidate around. If it is so, then the whole coalition is doomed..

Veteran leaders liek Dr Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh have come out to warn UMNO not to choose someone with a tainted past. I think this message should be heeded, not only in this by election but in all undertakings of all component parties, be it UMNO, MCA , Gerakan, PPP or others including the opposition parties.

To win a seat but to continue losing the credibility war, it would be like winning a penny but losing the pound.

This  is very clearcut to the rakyat  watching from the side, but unfortunantely, those walking the corridors of power often seem so adept in shooting not the enemy but ownself in the foot, that time and again, obviously wrong decisions are made.