The Stateless Malaysian: Changing the Status Quo
Born and bred in Malaysia, Yew Lee’s paradigm completely shifted when he realised he was never acknowledged as a Malaysian. That realization led him to go on a journey of fighting for the rights of the Stateless. Statelessness is an issue that remains silent, tucked into the crevices of society, marginalising thousands in our midst.
For the first ten years of my life, I thought I was Malaysian as I had been living the Malaysian life like others. One day, we went to the National Department of Registration to get my brother’s Identification Card when he turned 12, but there was a problem. The National Registration Department (JPN) didn’t think we were Malaysians.
We had been using Sabah’s old birth certificate format, which didn’t indicate our citizenship status. Only when we were there did they advise us to change to the new certificate format. They exchanged my old certificate with a new red-coloured birth certificate, with a large stamp in the top right corner with the words Bukan Warganegara (Non-Citizen). Only then did I know we were neither Malaysian nor non-Malaysian.
We were Stateless.
Being Stateless means that you are not a citizen of any country. Fundamentally, it meant not having an Identity Card (IC), but practically, you couldn’t have anything else. Without an IC, you cannot find a job, open a bank account or do any financial transactions, and in this era of e-commerce, you can’t even obtain an e-wallet. You cannot pursue your dreams and ambitions.
There are three types of cards that common Malaysians have, but not the Stateless: The Identity Card, the Bank Card, and the SIM Card — having a phone number. In this day and age, it is hard to survive without a bank account and ATM card. The phone line I am using now was the number my friend helped me register.
Finding employment is difficult because there is no avenue or channel to employ someone who is in the middle – not Malaysian and not a non-Malaysian. Most employers avoid you to save themselves the trouble and hassle.
At ages 16, 17, and 18, you are supposed to pursue your dreams, like becoming a doctor or teacher, but the very thing that is stopping you is your citizenship or lack thereof. It’s that paper, the only paper, that is stopping you from pursuing your dreams. When I see other people achieving their dreams, I think to myself, ‘Wow, that could be me if I had an IC. I could have been better.’ This was one of my disappointments.
Different Types of Statelessness
If you are stateless, you are most likely undocumented. And if you want to track the numbers among the undocumented community, it will be very difficult. I believe there could be over 300,000 stateless people in Malaysia. The Statelessness I am referring to is called in-situ statelessness, which is statelessness within the context of Malaysia. Not de facto statelessness, which is the case for the refugees.
Causes of in-situ statelessness include birth out of wedlock, abandoned children, or babies, commonly termed ‘foundlings‘, children who are adopted, or children born to a Malaysian and non-Malaysian parent, where there is a gender discriminating law that prohibits a child from obtaining Malaysian citizenship.
The statelessness of the parents can be transferred down to their children in the case of ‘marriage’ between stateless individuals. Some parents from low-income groups may be illiterate and unaware of birth registration processes. Some might find it challenging to fill in the many documents for their children as it takes time, and they would rather focus on working to put food on the table.
In my case, my mother is Filipino, and my father is Malaysian. They did not have a proper marriage or marriage certificate. So my father couldn’t pass on the citizenship to me. And I also do not have any claim to citizenship in the Philippines. I am not a citizen of either country, and both countries kept pushing me around.
In-situ Statelessness
Statelessness refers to the condition of not being considered a national by any country. In-situ statelessness would then imply a situation where individuals are residing in a particular country but are not considered nationals of that country or any other. There are stateless persons who have never crossed borders and find themselves in their ‘own country’. Their predicament exists in situ, that is in the country of their long-term residence, in many cases the country of their birth. For these individuals, statelessness is often the result of problems in the framing and implementation of national laws.
When I went to the Malaysian government, they said, “You ni Filipino, kena balik lah.” (You are Filipino, you should go back). And when I went to the Philippines embassy, they told me, “You are not registered, and you are not legally our citizen.“
Light at the end of the tunnel
We had to go through many processes, such as filling out the 15A-Registration of Citizenship under Special Circumstances form, which takes an average of three years to process an application. And it took me three applications before I successfully got my citizenship. I got rejected in the first two applications, and they didn’t give any reasons. It’s like you wait three years for this letter, and when you finally open it, it says: REJECTED, without any reason given at all.
After my third application, I was finally awarded my Malaysian citizenship in 2022. I applied under the category of a child adopted by Malaysian parents. My father passed away when I was very young, and his sister — my aunt, adopted me to proceed with my citizenship application. Because my mother was not legally married to my father, she had no long-term visa to stay in Malaysia. I am still in contact with her, although she is presently residing in the Philippines.
I also consider myself very lucky because I still have a birth certificate. At the age of 12, when my peers obtained their ICs, I still had to use my birth certificate as the official identity document from Form 1 to Form 5. The students would bring their ICs into the examination hall, but I had to bring my red-coloured birth certificate. We had to display it on our desks, and each time, I would have to explain why I was bringing this in. This continued until Form Six. I am one of the lucky few who could enrol on Primary and Secondary School as well as pre-University.
Generally, stateless children can enroll in school, but only if they register as non-Malaysian. The school term usually starts in January, but the application process for this only opens in January. You would have to wait for the approval, which only happens around March or April. So, a stateless child would miss a lot of learning during these few months of waiting.
My aunt was a dean in one of the university faculties and is presently a vice president. Back then, she found a way to help me to get into tertiary education. Since then, she has been helping other stateless people like me get into universities. This has set a positive precedent for helping stateless students like me gain tertiary education.
Connecting the Stateless through Stories
I am 24 and just finished my bachelor’s degree in computer science, and I am now a full-time software engineer. I have been doing side projects related to Statelessness in the last few years. I try to raise awareness about statelessness and share my experiences with university students, NGOs, Members of Parliament, State Assemblymen (ADUNs) and others. I did one interview with SUHAKAM and was also featured on a news show on Astro Awani.
Some stateless individuals have reached out to me on Facebook and Instagram, seeking help with their tertiary education. When I was involved in a student representative council back in university, I also managed to help some students enrol on university.
I started www.stateless.my, a platform to share the stories of Stateless Malaysians, because I realised one thing: When we talk about statelessness or advocate for the issues, we always see the CSOs, NGOs or groups advocating on behalf of the stateless, but there is hardly any representation by the stateless persons themselves. The NGOs and CSOs may not fully understand what the stateless are enduring as they do not feel the urgency and the state of uncertainty a stateless person faces. So, they might be unable to convey the true feelings or emotions behind their circumstances.
I designed stateless.my so that the stateless person can share his or her story and in doing so, connect with other stateless people. Traditional media, including news portals, do not like featuring the voices of the stateless communities in Malaysia. Some Malaysians have misconceptions about the Stateless, thinking that they are undocumented immigrants or refugees.
I saw a gap out there. For stateless children, advocacy groups are managed by their parents. But no stateless adults are willing to stand up, speak out for themselves, and fight for their rights. Starting within my circle of stateless friends, I have been reaching out to them to share their stories. They would send it to me, and I would publish them. We have a few stories as most stateless individuals are not ready to share. Some are ashamed to talk about their statelessness. But it will take time, I believe.
Although the government is now talking about statelessness at the national level compared to a few years back (when Malaysia didn’t even recognise Statelessness at all), there still needs to be a lot of empowerment among stateless individuals. While good progress and efforts are made to amend or create new policies, it still isn’t the best progress. We have yet to see an optimistic direction.
I want to encourage Malaysians to pay attention to the people around them. Stateless people could live in your midst, carrying on life just as you do. Perhaps we can offer them the help they need through our influence and resources. Perhaps we can help change the state of things.
