Stateless people: 21 NGOs form Council

Kota Kinabalu: Twenty-one non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have agreed to work together and form a Development Human Resources Sabah Native Rights Council to address the issue of stateless people in the State.Pro tem committee head Dato' Nani Sakam said they also agreed to build a common platform to tackle various issues pertaining to stateless people such as documentation and citizenship at the grassroots level irrespective of their race and religion.

He said priority would be given to addressing the stateless people issue in Sabah, particularly those living in the rural and interior areas.

The 21 NGOs met in a two-day workshop here since Saturday to discuss and look into problems related to the perennial issue of stateless and undocumented people in Sabah.

"We have yet to come up with any resolutions. We will continue to meet after Hari Raya as we are still in the process of finalising them. In fact, there are four to five proposals that we need to scrutinise and look into before deciding on them.

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"At the same time, we will assist in bringing up issues to respective authorities, including the State and Federal governments," he told a press conference after the workshop on empowerment of community heads on documentations and stateless people, organised by Development Human Resources Rural Area (DHRAA) Malaysia, here, Sunday.

Among the 21 NGOs which attended the workshop were the Sabah Suluk Chamber of Commerce, Sabah Native Community Association, KKIA Taxi Drivers Club, Sabah Islamic Consolidation Organisation (PPIS) and Sabah Women Entrepreneurs.

The Council's pro tem committee comprises deputy head Datuk Mohd Kudar Datuk Abdul Kadir, vice-head Dr Azlina Ikad, secretary-general Datuk Mohd Saidi Bakal, women's chief Haslinda Awang Osman and others.

Nani said the council also plans to submit a list of resolutions, upon completion, to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal on certain state government policies that need to be reviewed.

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To a question, he said the role of the committee is to link the community with concerned quarters at government level as the NGOs were more aware of the issues on the ground.

Also present was DHRRA President Saravanan M Sinapan. - Hayati Dzulkifli

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