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Stateless Indians 'need just a stroke of the pen'?
Published:  May 19, 2013 9:33 AM
Updated: 11:41 AM

YOURSAY 'Waytha, Pakatan is committed to solve the problem of statelessness within 100 days. Are you able to meet that challenge?'

Waytha upbeat in solving stateless issue in five years

LittleGiant: It is disappointing that P Waythamoorthy, the disputed Hindraf chairperson and now deputy minister in the PM's Department, is already talking like most of the Umno-BN ministers.

To say that he did not care about whatever his critics have to say only shows his lack of tact and maturity. He should learn to tolerate criticism and accept the rakyat's opinion with maturity and open-mindedness.

If he sincerely wants to complete the huge task that is ahead of him - i.e. to resolve the Indian community's woes in five years - he must discard all ego and must first earn the trust of the Indian community again.

After all, it is Waytha who chose to abandon his principles and joined BN. The Indian community did not push him to do that. The onus is on Waytha to prove that he made the correct decision to join the 'Janji Ditepati' coalition.

He must expect to be under the tight scrutiny of the Indian Malaysian community and its leaders until he delivers what he promised to the community.

Odin: Waythamoorthy, you said that you could settle the citizenship issue of 280,000 stateless Indians in five years. In five years, there are (5 x 365 x 24) = 43,800 hours. In that period, there is one leap year; so, add one day or 24 hours. Total = 43,824 hours.

Divide the total number of hours by 280,000 stateless Indians, and we get 1.6 (to the nearest one decimal place) hours. That means you will be able to get one stateless Indian to be granted his or her citizenship documents within 1.6 hours.

How about you work on the case of Yanesha a/p Nanthakumar ? We shall be generous with you and give you one full day instead of 1.6 hours. Twenty-four hours after you will have been sworn in, we expect Yanesha to get her papers.

Spirit of Malaya: If my memory serves me well, Waythamoorthy tried to corner Pakatan Rakyat to accepting Hindraf's blueprint without any variations to its text, but Pakatan was not in a position to accept it.

Nevertheless, Waytha proceeded to sign the memorandum with Prime Minister Najib Razak despite its demands being watered down considerably.

Waytha had even gone further to say that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim could settle all the stateless Indian problems with a stroke of the pen. Now, after assuming the deputy minister's post, he is saying that the matter cannot be swiftly resolved and that it would take five years?

I can't say much about the others, but for me, if the MIC wasn't able to solve this Indian issue in the last 56 years, I seriously doubt Waytha can.

Vgeorgemy P Waythamoorthy, you are changing the tune now. You told us all the problems faced by the Indians could be solved by a stroke of a pen.

Pakatan is committed to solve the problem of statelessness within 100 days. Are you able to meet that challenge?

Kit P : The solution does not take five years. It takes political will, which is missing with BN. I suppose what has happened in between the signing of the MOU is the beautiful ministerial limousine so beloved by this newly-minted ‘mandore'.

Appum: Five years? You must be joking. Thousands of foreigners are given instant citizenship (some within a few hours) and you want five years to solve the stateless Indian problem?

Six months would be enough time. We don't want to have you eating ‘gaji buta' for five years.

Besides, do you know why Anwar said that he could solve the statelessness of the Indians within 100 days? Because, when you are in power, you really can.

So now that Najib is back in power, Waytha go pressure your boss and tell him you have to deliver it in less than 100 days, or you'll be cursed left, right and centre by these stateless Indians for missing the chance with Anwar.

Kenvy11: We don't need a clown to solve the problem of the stateless Indians. The government can easily do it if they wanted to do so.

What you need to do is to fight for equal status for all Malaysians. Don't treat Indians as second class citizens to the Malays. Do that, and we shall respect you.

Temenggong: Waytha, why five years? Within three months and with massive advertising all stateless persons can be identified and issued with documents. Why five years?

It is only documentation procedures. Birth certificates and ICs can be issued over the counter with the minimum of papers, just a declaratory testimony. Something is not right.

Retnam: Stateless Indians or others have not been able to get IC so far because of the policy in the National Registration Department (NRD) not to entertain such people.

If Najib wants to solve the problem he certainly can do it with a stroke of the pen by instructing the NRD to do it. Why would anybody need the Hindraf leader?

Fernz: It's easy to solve the problem of the stateless in the country including those in Sabah and Sarawak. Sack the NRD director-general for incompetence in not exercising her prerogative and discretionary powers to resolve the issue.

Appoint an Indian as the NRD director-general and an Orang Asal as the deputy director-general. There's no need for Malays to hold these posts. Otherwise more illegal immigrants will be listed in the electoral rolls.

Kgen: Why can't you solve the stateless problem in 100 days? Most of these unfortunate people end up stateless because of a simple missing document like a birth certificate, but it is a simple matter to determine if they are really Malaysians.

A five-minute interview and verification with school records would do it. The NRD for its own reasons made it almost impossible for them to rectify their stateless status.

Now Waytha is dancing to the government's tune. He will not solve the Indian stateless problem, he will just carry out BN's wishes and pretend to be doing something.

Peteray: A deputy minister is not a member of the cabinet. So Waytha has no role in policy making. As deputy minister in the PM's Department, you are only an office boy there.

Up2U: Waytha is appointed a deputy minister of Indian affairs by Najib for reasons only Najib knows, but definitely it is a slap in the face for MIC, PPP and IPF.

It is a confirmation of the inability of these three parties in handling Indian affairs in the past. The silence from leaders of these parties who have been appointed to the cabinet shows their own spineless selves. For the members of these parties and the other Indians who are still in slumber, wake up.

Bijan Waytha and Hindraf adviser N Ganesan, when someone came out and said the government should close down Tamil schools , why have both of you never come out and condemned it?

Even MIC chief G Palanivel came out and condemned the statement. Both of you always said Pakatan Indians and MIC are ‘mandores', but who are the ‘mandores' now?

Ramesh Rajaratnam: Personally, I would like to take my slippers and slap his face if I ever see him. But I will wait for 100 days to see what he does in office.

In the olden days in America, a black man was given a job in the white-man's bungalow, usually a very menial position (butler, doorman, etc) to show the plantation blacks that the white boss was being fair to both whites and blacks.

Unfortunately, that black-man-in-the-house was given a nasty name by the others. Well, let's see what becomes of Waytha.

Anonymous_3f89 If Waythamoorthy can solve the 280,000 stateless Indians issue within five years, then all the useless MIC, PPP, and IPF leaders must all fall down on their knees and kiss his feet, for being unable to do it for the last 55 years.

Real Truth: Deputy Minister Waytha, what about our legal court case against the British government which you initiated during your sojourn in UK?

Please use your good office at PM's Office and call London to settle the said case as soon as possible. Even now after five years, people are forgetting that your purpose in UK was to initiate the court case.

Ranjit Singh: Let's look it in an objective manner, today Hindraf has been provided with a platform to eradicate the flaws of the current system.

Naturally MIC had it for 56 years and they enriched themselves, Pakatan had it for five years in the opposition states and they enriched themselves, but now we have Hindraf an NGO working in tandem with a willing government to eradicate the problems affecting the Indians, why all the curses?

Give them a chance as they have been mandated, and if they are not able to deliver then of course all of us have a liberty to blast them.

Karma: In the end, it was a correct move that Pakatan rejected Hindraf's demands for seats to contest in GE13.

Waytha 'prostituted' Hindraf in order to secure a favour. It is no wonder why he can forego so many items when signing the MOU with BN, which had once linked him to the Tamil Tigers terrorists, and when his combatting brothers were jailed while he was in UK.

The BN government even 'took away' his passport. We were all concerned for his imprisonment when he attempted to return. Now it is so clear why there was a Hindraf-Najib deal. It was for the deputy minister's post.

TabbyCat : Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos and so on can get their ICs in two months. You need five years?


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