KUCHING: A growing number of stateless infants and children are being identified in Sarawak, prompting calls for the state to gain independent authority over birth certificate issuance.
Sebastian Ting, secretary-general of the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP), highlighted that the Home Ministry in Putrajaya is struggling to address the surge in new cases due to an existing backlog of unresolved stateless Sarawakian applications.
According to Ting, who also serves as State Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, delegating birth certificate issuance powers to Sarawak would enable faster resolution of cases involving young children.
“The stateless issue in Sarawak will remain unresolved as long as processing and decisions remain centralised in Putrajaya,” Ting stated in a statement.
He emphasised that SUPP is managing numerous such cases and that granting Sarawak autonomy would streamline the path to securing Malaysian identity cards (MyKad) for stateless children once they obtain birth certificates.
SUPP is part of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), the state’s ruling coalition, alongside Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu, Parti Rakyat Sarawak, and the Progressive Democratic Party.
The Piasau assemblyman noted that his office handles statelessness cases spanning all age groups—from newborns to elderly individuals—with most cases currently requiring years to resolve due to Putrajaya referrals.
Official figures from the end of last year recorded over 13,000 stateless Sarawakians, though Ting suggested the actual number could be significantly higher when accounting for unreported cases in rural communities.