Statement (No.50) to the Government of Malaysia for which we expect a reply:
2,203 (almost all working class Indian) children “to get” their right to attend school after they are issued with their birth certificates. So says Home Minister Hishammuddin (UM 08/10/09 at page 4) Primary school education is as of right and there is no compromise on this. So while processing their birth certificates with the target date of year end we ask the Home Minister for:-
1) The list of children who have been issued birth certificates from today onwards to be updated on a weekly basis in the Home Minister’s website to show sincerity that this UMNO Minister means what he said and is not a racist and that it is not merely the usual “UMNO paper politics”
2) What about the balance from the 93,360 applications for late birth registration at the latest by the end of the year that the National Registration Department has been ordered to clear? (The Sun 08/10/09 front page). Why is there no deadline to clear this Mr. Home Minister Hishammuddin. Because 98% of them are “merely” the poor working class and helpless Indian children? We urge your goodself to set a three month deadline and put up the names of those issued with their rightful birth certificates in the Home Minister’s Website within one week from today.
3) And finally issue an urgent Directive to all Primary and Secondary schools to with effect form 01/01/2010 to take in all Malaysian Indian children into all Tamil and National schools and Institutions of Higher learning even if they have been denied their birth certificates.
4) UMNO’s Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin should cancel the earlier Education Minister’s circular for 2008 onwards prohibiting Indian children from being admitted into Tamil schools and sacking existing Indian children from Tamil schools if they do not have birth certificates (actually denied their birth right to be issued their birth certificates) (P. Uthayakumar)
