At last long Rika and six other Sarawakians receive their identitty cards

KUCHING, Dec 23, 2016 - Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (SADIA) and Sarawak 4 Sarawakians (S4S) movement are happy to announce that the case of Rika Herline anak Ji-In, whose identity card has long been outstanding, is finally settled at long last. 

Peter John Jaban (2nd left) and Simon Siah (2nd right) with Rika Herline anak Jiin (centre) and lawyer Chua Kuan Ching (right) at the National Registration Department headquarters.

 

So far, the two civil movements have assisted seven candidates, most of whom have made several unsuccessful applications in the past, to acquire their identity cards, with three out of the seven now able to access their education once again. 

However, most importantly, these applications have all created an administrative precedent which should be taken forward by the respective government departments in their goal to solve issues of statelessness within the rural communities in Sarawak. 

Therefore, the two groups call upon Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, Majlis Adat Istiadat and the various District Offices to tailor their administrative requirements better to the needs of the communities that they serve and to work more closely together to allow genuine applicants their full constitutional rights and proper recognition of their customary law.

Peter John Jaban, human rights advocate, told reporters: “We have been given a great deal of support by various agencies: the JPN taskforce on this issue; the representative from Majlis Adat Istiadat for these communities and the Penghulu for the area. 

"They have done everything within their power to expedite these cases for the benefit of the community.  Our two civil movements will be collaborating further with these agencies in the future to solve IC issues for other candidates in Balai Ringin in the new year. 

"However, our experience has highlighted several difficulties for rural applicants in the current system, which goes to explain the huge numbers of genuine Sarawakians currently living without Mykads.

"Until these administrative requirements are made more accessible to rural people, the problems will continue.  We must ask the three departments to become more responsive to the needs of the communities that they serve if they are sincere in wanting to solve the issues of statelessness which still plague rural Sarawak.

 “We have had access to senior officers who have been responsive, effective and caring and our thanks go out to them.  But this was not easy to get.  We had to fight hard over several months to get their cases heard by experienced staff. 

"In fact, we had to threaten to sue!  However, the rural folk do not have the same treatment from the counter staff who are, in many cases, unaware of procedures and unwilling to do any more than the bare minimum to solve these cases. 

"In some instances, they have even been obstructive, failing to provide proper advice and assistance and even closing counters early to go and pick up their children from school.

“Moreover, the process itself, even when applied correctly, is incredibly taxing for rural folk.  For Rika’s case alone, her family had to find the Penghulu multiple times and even had to visit the Commissioner for Oaths on three separate occasions!  For many rural families, who find reading and writing difficult, the system is impossible. 

"Of course, the Commissioner for Oaths at the simpang office in Kuching only operates three mornings a week and there are no photocopying facilities available on site of any JPN divisional office.

"These difficulties are the reasons why Rika’s identity card, promised in one month, has taken more than twice that time to settle. 

"Unfortunately, the administrative problems seen with IC applications are no simpler or more suitable for registration of marriages so the rural people have another hurdle at that stage.  It is no wonder there are so many stateless children in Sarawak," Peter said.

Simon Siah, lawyer for the families, said: “The problem in all these cases has not been with the law.  All of these eight cases have been settled with no changes to the existing legal framework. 

"The problem has always been with the administrative requirements put in place by various agencies to implement the existing laws.  Basically, all these applicants were rejected because of paperwork, not because they were not genuine cases. 

"Even worse, there seems to be no communication between the various government departments, so one department is not even aware of why so many applicants do not have the correct documentation from another. 

"Therefore, genuine applicants are being consistently turned away with no explanation and no possible solution.

“In each of these cases, the parents were properly married under Adat, which enjoys the force of law in Sarawak. 

"However, they were being turned away because their marriage certificates were either not on the correct form or else because they were not registered with the District Office.  Registration with the District Office is not stipulated in law; it is only an administrative requirement. 

"Unfortunately, this aspect of the administration has represented a serious stumbling block to many rural people who are required to travel into town to register with their witnesses and their Penghulu. 

"So, many couples who are living together in the knowledge of their communities, which under Adat makes them married in law, have simply not completed the registration process and therefore are falling foul of JPN requirements many years later. 

"To make matters worse, the incorrect message is now being disseminated that Adat marriages are not acceptable and so they are being coerced into later civil marriages.  

"We advise the rural people to travel into town and register their existing Adat marriages from the date at which they began to cohabit in the knowledge of their community. 

"However, we strongly advise Majlis Adat Istiadat and the District Office, the agencies tasked with the care of Dayak Adat and rural communities, to carry out a proper drive, at community level, to register all existing Adat marriages.  This would mean travelling out to communities rather than requiring impoverished applicants to travel in," Simon said.

Peter called  on all NGOs dealing with rural communities to work together to help the stateless. 

"We also call on all government departments and elected representatives to continue to work on this issue for the benefit of the people they serve. 

"The right to a nationality and an identity are basic human rights, not political tools.  No political party should be using this issue to gain political mileage. 

"These issues should have been solved long ago and yet they persist.  New cases of stateless children, born to genuine Sarawakian parents, are arising continuously, carrying through from generation to generation.  It cannot be allowed to continue," he said.

For many rural Sarawakians, Adat is not only law; it is culture and practice since time immemorial.  It is part of Sarawakian identity.

Therefore, in the same week which has seen rural Dayaks stripped of their ancestral lands in a ruling by three Federal Court judges who have no experience and little understanding of the customary practices of the Indigenous People of the State, SADIA and S4S are calling for a change in policy and attitude to the status of Adat within government departments.

 It is up to these government departments to safeguard not just the rights of these communities but also the culture and traditional practices of our state that make us so special.

Their administrative requirements must be tailored to recognize citizens’ rights in law but also to allow them to enjoy their traditions and identities in peace and comfort.

Seven cases have been solved but countless many remain and until there is a change in policy and the unrealistic administrative requirements placed on rural citizens, these issues will continue unsolved. 

However, S4S and SADIA and the legal team at Simon Siah, Chua and Chow Advocates will not give up until all genuine Sarawakian applicants are enjoying their civil rights, not just under their Adat but also under the Federal Constitution and even international conventions such as the United Nations Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women and on the Rights of the Child. 

The law exists to protect the people of the State; now we must ensure that policy and practice do the same.