PETALING JAYA, Aug 5 — One can be born, bred, and live their entire life in Malaysia but still not be granted citizenship. This was the case for siblings Dickson Anderias,...
Dickson and Dennis showing a document from the Indonesian authorities that confirmed that they did not have passports issued by the country. — The Borneo PostPETALING JAYA, Aug 5 — One can be born, bred, and live their entire life in Malaysia but still not be granted citizenship.
“Back then, we did not know much about the importance of having documents. This is probably because we lived far from town, where it took almost one week of walking through the thick jungle and logging road to get to Lawas town. “I was heartbroken. While my friends were able to pursue their dreams, I was stuck in a situation that I never knew would last my entire life,” he said.As he and his wife were not citizens, all four of their children were also born stateless.Wanting to give their children a better future, the couple made the decision to give up two of their children for adoption to relatives who had Malaysian citizenship.
After his grandparents married in Sabah, they migrated on foot to Krayan, in Kalimantan, Indonesia , where Dickson’s father Anderias Sia, was born in 1944. “However, it was not long before the Indonesians caught one of the spies but my father was lucky that he was able to flee on foot from Kalimantan with my mother to Bario.
After many years of trying, the couple were finally issued with a temporary resident card, now known as MyKas, which also enabled their children to apply for a similar document in 1974. National news agency Bernama reported in July 2018 that there were 33,957 MyKas holders in Malaysia as of June 2018.
However, they never succeed. It was only after over 40 years since their MyKas were seized that Dickson’s parents finally had their citizenship applications approved in 2018, prior to the 14th General Election.“Of course, my parents were over the moon when they finally received their MyKads. We never thought the day would finally come.
“My other sister Diana previously lived in Kota Kinabalu in Sabah to be near the hospital as she was receiving treatment for her cancer, but she died of the illness at the end of last year,” he said.
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