COMMENT | Two weeks after the national football team’s controversial win over Vietnam in June, three high-achieving students - all born and raised in Malaysia - made impassioned emotional pleas to resolve their citizenship status.

Virman Juri, a 26-year-old with two degrees, is fighting for recognition as a citizen. Similarly, Keshwin Iswar Satkunavel, 19, who scored 4As in STPM, and Mathish, 17, with 10As in SPM, have seen their chances of entering public universities devastated by revoked citizenship.

Their youth and potential contrast sharply with former Border Scouts Basar Arun and Joseph Pengiran, who served during the mid-1960s Confrontation. They waited over 50 years for citizenship, receiving their MyKads only this year at ages 85 and 79.