Govt: Stateless BOCs can apply again to be Malaysians13 Oct 2009, NST Online
By Farrah Naz Karim
PUTRAJAYA: Think through before concluding that the grass is greener on the other side, because once you want out, you stay out. This is the advice of Immigration director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman to Malaysians giving up their citizenship to assume another. He was commenting on a news report that hundreds of Malaysians, who had given up their citizenship with the hope of becoming British citizens on the basis of the British Overseas Citizenship (BOC) status, are now stateless…………….
___________________________________________________________________I couldn’t agree more with statement made by Datuk Abdul Rahman on Malaysian who gave out their citizenship for another ‘heaven’. The moment kutu2 ni made their decision to forgo their citizenship, they should understand the risk & consequences of doing so, irrespective whether the British Government ask them to do so (for some blaming it on Malaysian Government, quote MySinchew dated 29.07.2009
“….The question is, knowing very well that BOC is as good as nothing, why should the British and Malaysian authorities allow these people to trade their Malaysian citizenship for some useless documents, rendering them stateless in so doing?”
C’mon, it’s their loyalty that we are questioning here, don’t divert the main issue.
So what is BOC? British Overseas Citizen is a special identity given to a group of people, in Malaysian case, Penangites & Malaccan when the British left Malaya upon independence. Maka ramailah yang masih dijajah pemikirannya (memandang tinggi hidung Mat Saleh) memohon mendapatkan BOC ni dari British. Negara-negara lain ada juga diberikan special identiy ini seperti Kenya, Cyprus, India, Pakistan dan sebagainya. Classic case adalah selepas penyerahan semula Hong Kong kepada British 1997. Too many Hongkies applied for the BOC that in 2002 the British Government tightening the procedures and allows no more BOC from these countries. See definition of BOC status from Wiki
"In British National Law, the status of British Overseas citizen (BOC) is one of several categories of British national. A British Overseas citizen does not have an automatic right to live in the United Kingdom”.
The question now what will happen to these BOC people? They are now stateless!
Then, kebanyakan stateless BOC ni terpaksalah merempat secara illegal (ada yang jadi tukang basuh pinggan yop!, walaupun bila dah balik Malaysia lagak cam businessman beso – experience masa jadi bankers dulu!) di Britain walaupun dah merantau di sana since ages. Maka berduyun-duyunlah mereka kembali memohon kewarganegaraan daripada Malaysian Government.
Ada yang bertegas (see comments by Datuk Seri Home Minister)
‘‘Tindakan memohon melucutkan kerakyatan amat serius dan kalau mahu mohon semula mereka perlu pohon balik seperti warga asing lain”.
Beliau mengulas laporan agensi AFP mengenai beratus-ratus rakyat Malaysia yang ‘mengoyakkan’ (exaggerate, don’t you think so?) pasport mereka dan berlepas ke Britain kerana percaya boleh menuntut hak kerakyatan negara itu.
Hebat statement ni Datuk Seri..tapi jangan hangat2 taik ayam je cam cerita hunus keris dulu, sampai mintak2 ampun penyudahnya!!
Namun ada juga yang nak jadi hero (see comments by Bar Council Human Rights Committee chairman Edmund Bon, “Call to restore citizenship of stranded ex-Malaysians” dated 13 Oct 2009)
"If they are willing to apply for Malaysian citizenship and can prove that they were born here and were Malaysian citizens before, then the government should take them back."
Statement by Latifa Koya, another lawyer
“Malaysian government could choose to take back the people as the constitution protects citizens from being stateless”
Well you guys (estimated 500 BOC at current) nampaknya terpaksalah memohon semula citizenship yang mungkin akan mengambil masa puluhan tahun (sampai umur 99 tahun la – kes Choong Yik Sheng..). After all ‘Citizenship is a privilege, not a right’.
Good relevant reading:
http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/berita/komen_undang_undang/79199_melayu_lepaskan_kerakyatan.html
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=445767
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/114006
No comments:
Post a Comment