Sinos finally get to open ASB accounts
Published on: Monday, June 29, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Sino-KDMs (KadazanDusunMuruts) in limbo over their status and unable to open Amanah Saham Bumiputra (ASB) accounts can finally heave a sigh of relief.The Sabah Sino KDM Association (SSKA) Kota Kinabalu branch managed to help 30 individuals open ASB accounts even though not all of them had Native Certificates to confirm their bumiputera eligibility.The exercise, Sunday, was in collaboration with ASNB and Maybank Kota Kinabalu. They had to produce their birth certificates that confirmed the status of their parents.
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SSKA Supreme Council member Jerry Goh said the applicants only need to bring copies of their birth certificates and ASB officials would determine if they are eligible by checking their parents' ethnicity."If one of them is native, then the children are considered native also and will be eligible for ASB," he said.However, it was unclear if the special provision also applied to Indians having native parentage.Meanwhile, SSKA President Datuk Johnny Goh, proposed that a committee be set up consisting of native chiefs and members from the Sabah Native Affairs Council (MHEANS) to avoid fake Native Certificates making the rounds.
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The committee, he said, should include representatives from the Sino-KDM community because most of the native certificates were issued for them."Our community is not big and we know each other. Furthermore, there are not many people who have Native Certificates because its issuance had been frozen in 1982. Even my daughter who was born that year does not have a Native Certificate.
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"So those who possess Native Certificates are a dying breed unless the Government decides to issue new Native Certificate in the future," he said.Nevertheless, Goh said being recognised as Bumiputra would not mean they would drop their Chinese surname."The Sino-KDM community would rather fight to be recognised as a sub-ethnic of the Kadazandusun."We are both Chinese and Kadazan or Dusun or Murut. We are Sino. We cannot speak Chinese but our surnames are Chinese. And we can even speak better Kadazan, Dusun, Murut than non-Sino natives. We even live like them."The Baba Nyonya community is also fighting for this right. We are no different," he said.Speaking on the MACC action, he said some people have voiced their concern that this could lead to the association being dissolved since most of Native Certificate holders are Sino-KDMs.Goh said personally he welcomed the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) action because it is high time for the government to separate the lamb from the goat and assured the Sino-KDM community that MACC is only going after those with fake Native Certificate."What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. I always believe in this," he said.He, however, urged the government especially the Land and Survey Department to review its procedures after it was revealed that a man had managed to hoard 300 land titles using his fake Native Certificate."The department should clarify why it failed to notice the man was using a fake Native Certificate. As Sabahan, we can see just by their look whether the person is pure Chinese or product of intermarriage," he said.Goh said while it is good that the MACC was able to nab the man, there is still the issue of the more than 1,000 hectares of NT lands under the man's name.Status was allowed only for SabahThe granting of Bumiputra status to Sinos (of mixed native parentage) was only accorded to Sabah as a special case at the time of independence by founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman due to two reasons.Firstly, it was found that there was a high incidence of mixed marriages between Chinese and natives with the offspring also following Kadazan or Dusun customs.Secondly, one of Sabah's founding fathers, late Donald (later Tun Fuad) Stephens was himself not a full native but of mixed parentage but was head of the Native Advisory Council in the Legislative Council.The issuance of native certificates known as Sijil Anak Negeri was frozen by the State Government on April 29, 1982, during the rule of then Berjaya.This followed abuse due to non-indigenous people obtaining such certificates to acquire native land and other benefits given to native bumiputras in Sabah.The certificates were previously issued by the Mahkamah Anak Negeri (Native Court) after the applicant's lineage was verified as a true native.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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