Terror suspects lose PR status that was a headline in the Star on Oct 10. The report went to state that the '... Home Ministry has revoked the permanent resident (PR) status of 16 suspected Jemaah Islamiah (JI) members'.

While it is wrong for any person to lose his or her PR status or citizenship without even a trial, we must not forget that everyone is innocent until proven guilty but then there are other issues here.

Why, in the first place, were these 16 having PR status? Were these persons originally from foreign countries? Why were they given Malaysian PR status which if I am not mistaken, is just one step away from becoming a full citizen?

How difficult has it been for foreign spouses of Malaysians to get a PR status, more so if the husband was the one who was a non-Malaysian. Thankfully though, this would have or should have been corrected by the recent explicit inclusion of a 'no discrimination by means of gender' clause into our Federal Constitution.

But I am seriously concerned why our government is dishing out PRs to persons not citizens or spouses of citizens. Or were those 16 spouses to Malaysians?

If these 16 JI suspects had been granted PR status, how many more of the same? Surely the government, in particular the Home Ministry, must disclose to all Malaysians as to how many foreigners have been given PR status to date and the reasons why.

And following this, the number of permanent residents who subsequently have been granted full citizenship.

As a Malaysian, I would really like to know how many new Malaysians are out there, where are they from be it Java, Aceh, Brunei, Kalimantan or Bosnia. Since our national statistics has not disclosed any new ethnic group, I wonder whether these new citizens have been categorised as 'Others' (Lain-lain).

In 2004, after more than 45 years of Merdeka, we still fill up official forms by marking whether we are 'Melayu', 'Bumiputera', 'Cina, 'India' or 'Lain-lain' despite the fact that we are all Malaysians.

We must stop this practice be just known as Malaysians. Who cares where our forefathers originated from?

I seriously hope that our new Malaysian permanent residents and citizens from other lands have not been mistakenly given the 'bumiputera' status for if so, then the true bumiputeras have been cheated of their share of the wealth and opportunities in this land.

This is a gross injustice on not just bumiputeras but on all Malaysians.

Our Malaysian family is growing but all this while, I thought the new permanent residents (eventually citizens) were only the non-Malaysian spouses of Malaysians (and world-class athletes). The government must explain the true state of our nation and its citizenry.