KUCHING: Sarawak should be given full autonomy on citizenship approval to resolve the issue of statelessness among its indigenous people, say local activists.

       Their call comes after a nine-year-old girl in Lawas was stopped from attending school due to her citizenship status, which was still pending approval.

       Peter John Jaban, a member of the Global Human Rights Federation, said it was time for Sarawak to demand full autonomy over the administrative requirements for citizenship to better reflect the local context, now that the state had regained its status as an equal partner in the Federation of Malaysia.

       He said Sarawak natives were particularly hard hit by the administrative rigidity of the National Registration Department (NRD), especially with regard to marriage registrations as a prerequisite for citizenship approval.

       "This inflexibility or lack of understanding of the local context has impacted many Sarawakians.

       "It is time to bring the approval process back to the state. This will ease the unbelievable delays in the process, which see young children unable to attend education while they wait, and also allow more appropriate administrative requirements to be drafted," Peter said in a statement.

       He was responding to a news report that Jeanny Liana Ating, 9, was still waiting for her citizenship application to be approved despite being born and raised in Sarawak, due to her parents' late marriage registration.

       On Feb 24, the Borneo Post reported that her mother Ruran Lukas received a text message saying that Jeanny was no longer allowed to attend SK Long Sebangang as she did not have identity documents.

       Independent Council of Natives founder Bill Jugah said the NRD should overhaul its policies in Sarawak to recognise the stateless situation of many natives.

       "Otherwise, just give Sarawak full autonomy over the NRD. Let us solve this issue of statelessness once and for all for genuine Sarawakians without going through Putrajaya.

       "The solution cannot be on a case by case basis. We want the state government to take control of the registration of stateless people or even issue its own registration card," he said.