Despite having agreed to amend the Federal Constitution to enable children born overseas to Malaysian mothers and foreign fathers to gain automatic citizenship, it appears that the Malaysia Madani Unity Government still have a lot of work to do in order to thoroughly implement it.
Family Frontiers took to their Twitter page to showcase a little girl who had to stand aside while her peers got vaccinated at her school. The nurses apparently had to draw a cross on her arm to mark her as a non-recipient as she was not a Malaysian citizen.
Family Frontiers wrote, “Since she isn’t Malaysian, she couldn’t qualify for her standard 1 vaccinations that are only given to Malaysians. To identify her as a non-recipient, the nurses marked an ‘X’ on her arms and made her stand aside.”
“This was what Sumalini’s child faced as a non-Malaysian child of a Malaysian mother.”
Though, Family Frontiers is not criticising the school as they have been assisting Sumalini’s daughter however they can. Sadly, their help can only go so far.
“The non-Malaysian kids of Malaysian mothers do not receive the same treatment as their peers despite being in public schools. This impacts them negatively.”
“Her child often feels othered due to her non-citizen status and language barriers. She also has begun to feel inferior to her younger brother who is Malaysian. She knows that he does not have to face what she faces, from obtaining visas to extra expenses as a foreigner,” they explained.
On top of that, the little girl is forced to be excluded from competing and joining programmes
“Despite being a high performing student, she cannot join competitions as they are reserved only for Malaysians. She was also not allowed to join the Nilam programme,” Family Frontiers said.
“She no longer wants to read and write about her books like her friends because she feels like there’s no point. She’s discouraged,” Sumalini added.
At the end of the day, she only wants to learn and do her best, and she should be given the opportunity to do just that.
“The education policy towards non-citizen kids must be more inclusive as the impacts of exclusion in education is lifelong. There are many more children like Sumalini’s child.”
“How long will we continue to deny them from a normal education and childhood?”
We genuinely hope that the ministers in the Malaysia Madani Unity Government can rectify this issue to allow these promising kids the chance the shine in their own ways.
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share in the comment section.
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