Team Harimau Malaya atau team Mini-UN...

Team Harimau Malaya atau team Mini-UN....

Citizenship goals for footballers

as stateless struggle...

On Dec 27 last year, 10-year-old R Shivaani appealed to the prime minister after the Education Ministry denied her from entering school to continue her primary studies. “I am asking Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to help me to go to school next year,” she wrote. It must have tugged his heart as he knows the issues involved and how bureaucrats work.

In 2017, from behind the walls of Sungai Buloh prison, Anwar (then in the opposition) wrote: “The plight of stateless children in Malaysia is ‘appalling’ while the government’s indifference to it is ‘shameful’. “The government has shown no interest or political will to resolve this matter. It is shameful that stateless children have to file legal actions and be dragged through a series of appeals simply to obtain the basic right of citizenship.”

Mr Prime Minister, many court cases are ongoing, and others are pending in the courts under your watch. That may have been a digression but five days after that letter, on New Year’s Day, a 23-member Malaysian football team assembled at KLIA en route to Doha to play in the Asian Cup qualifiers. The players and coaches looked fresh and in high spirits, as they took the opportunity to extend New Year greetings to fans and media personnel waiting at the airport, Bernama reported.

“Harimau Malaya is targeting to create history by qualifying for the round of 16 after failing to clear the group stage in the three editions they participated in,” the news agency said. With the prime minister extending his best wishes to the team, it was thought it was morale-boosting, but when you lack the talent and skills, it matters little.

Money can’t buy success either but the footballing Gods in Malaysia are not short of novel ideas. The fact that they did not qualify for the next stage and will return home later this week is moot.

Mini-UN team

The team that went to Doha was not entirely from Malaysia – it was a mini–United Nations of sorts – more than half were pendatang (immigrants) – as many like to label them. Fourteen of them have foreign ancestry or were foreign-born.

They include Corbin Ong (Barbadian father), Dion Cools (Belgian father), Junior Eldstål (Swedish father), Brendan Gan (born in Australia), Matthew Davies (born in Australia), Endrick Dos Santos (born in Brazil), Paulo Josue (born in Brazil), Romel Morales (born in Colombia), Stuart Wilkin (born in England), Daniel Ting (born in England), Darren Lok (born in England), Dominic Tan (born in Singapore), Natxo Insa (born in Spain), and Mohamadou Sumareh (born in The Gambia).

Who are these people? I refer to them as journeymen, not footballers, who leave their home country where they will never find a place in the top tier where meritocracy, competence, and skills matter, to seek their fortunes on our shores.

How did they end up playing for Malaysia? Like instant noodles, there is also something called instant citizenship – courtesy of the generosity of the National Registration Department and the Home Ministry who are willing to, not even circumvent, but break the law.

Perhaps some influential people can make mountains move and flatten the obstacles along the way for a smooth journey. From 2014 to 2021, 25 players have been naturalised, eight of whom had no stints with either Harimau Malaya or junior national teams. Many more have since been made citizens including the present lot. This means football officials have used their influence or pulled strings to get citizenship for players without meeting the basic prerequisites for their applications to be processed.

Can they all speak Malay?

Article 19(3) of the Federal Constitution states that: “The periods of residence in the Federation or the relevant part of it which are required for the grant of a certificate of naturalisation are periods which amount in the aggregate to not less than 10 years in the 12 years immediately preceding the date of the application for the certificate, and which include the 12 months immediately preceding that date.”

According to the Home Ministry’s website, citizenship by naturalisation is for those who fulfil the minimum residency requirements and have adequate knowledge of the Malay language (the residency requirement has been outlined above).

How many of these journeymen have been in Malaysia for more than 10 years and how many of them can speak the Malay language? There are hundreds of foreign women married to Malaysians who are unable to get citizenship after umpteen years. Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh who is passionate about women’s and children’s rights must address these anomalies and shed some light on this instant citizenship.

Come up with a list

Previously, I raised this issue and asked: “So, did the ministry breach its own rules and fast-track their applications? Was it not a dereliction of their duties or a case of tutup satu mata (close one eye)?” So, who dispensed with the requirements and closed both eyes?

The home ministers since 2011 have been Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Muhyiddin Yassin, Hamzah Zainudin, and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Who among them approved and signed the citizenship papers for these journeymen?

In the name of transparency and accountability which this government has promised to uphold, can a full list, with dates and the approving minister, of those who became citizens without meeting the requirements be made public? Or will the government (once again) fall back on the Official Secrets Act to keep citizens in the dark?

As for Shivaani, after that letter, the girl is back in school. Now you know they can work expeditiously if there is a nudge from the very top instead of procrastinating to avoid difficult questions. - R.Nadeswaran,mk

14 of the squad of 23 of harimau malaysia team are naturalised citizens , embarassing , to state the least, and they can not qualify for the final rounds of the competition . The quality of the professionals we attract to the malysian football league is poor , understandably so, because of the low monetary compensation . They probably can not make it into the lowest league in their country . By all means employ them to improve our abysmal league . To fast track them to citizenship and choose them over native malaysians to represent our country is the ultimate insult to football loving malaysians . That is not the way to improve our standards . The second problem here is the ease with these footballers were awarded citizenship when numerous children and spouses of citizens are repeatedly refused the previlage ,in the process destroying their lives . They are told repeatedly by people in authority that they have no right to citzenship and awarding one is the right of the government !? . My heart goes out to the people who are waiting . - Robbies98

Slightly more than 30 years ago, our team of Malaysian born and bred qualified for the Olympics. A team of Malays, Indians and Chinese. Now with players " bought' like cattles' from other countries, we could not even qualify for an Asian level Qualifier. We did it with a hired ' gun' from Germany...Karl- Heize Weigang. Can we not look at a hired 'gun' to propel us further not only in sports but in other fields eg head/CEO of economics, health, education, industries etc. Give them full autonomy like how Karl Weigang demanded before he took up the job. Ahhhh...its only wishful thinking. As long as we are run by dunggus associated with politicians, we are doomed. - YellowKite4425

Kalu Sumareh tu masih berada di Gambia,hangpa ingat dia akan dipilih bermain untuk Gambiakah? Sorrylah!!! - ts

Depa ni dah merepek terok...

Majoriti rakyat menolak DS Anwar? Data mana yang dia ambil? Ada buat survey ke? Kalau nak minta YDP Agong pecat PM, mana boleh pakai data main agak agak je. Kenalah sempurna. Itu yang pertama.

Keduanya, PM adalah seorang MP yang YDP Agong percaya dapat sokongan majoriti semua MP yang lain. Bukan sokongan rakyat. Rakyat pilih MP, MP pilih PM. Gitu. DS Anwar dah pernah buat undi percaya dan beliau menang. Mahathir pun tak pernah buat undi percaya. Undian belanjawan yang dikira macam undi percaya pun DS Anwar menang.

Jadi Chegubadut ni cerita apa sebenarnya? Sudahlah tak ada data yang sempurna, tuntutan pula tak kena pada tempat. Apa hak dia nak turunkan PM yang ada sokongan melebihi ⅔ dewan?Dan satu lagi, tiada peruntukan undang-undang untuk YDP Agong pecat PM. YDP Agong berkuasa memilih PM. Tapi untuk turunkan PM, hanya melalui usul undi tak percaya. PN kena bawa usul ni di parlimen tapi tak ada lagi yang berani nak bawa.

Nampak sangat terdesak. Sebenarnya bukan PN tapi Mahathir. Yang aku nampak, Mahathir yang terlebih sudu dari kuah. PN, terutama Bersatu pun tak kecoh macam dia. Cuma lebai PAS tu je jenis Pak Turut. Main ikut je. Bukan reti apa pun.CheguBard ni nak kumpul 1,000 orang depan istana pun tak mampu, ada hati mengaku bawa suara rakyat. Mahathir dan CheguBard ni tak banyak beza. Dua-dua orang terbuang. - Raja Gelap II

Daim Zainuddin's wife, Naimah Khalid was charged in court today for failing to comply with the property declaration notice issued by the MACC. The prosecution of Daim's wife made her the second prominent wife to be brought to court after Najib Razak's wife, Rosmah Mansor, who was charged with corruption.

The 66-year-old was alleged to have committed the offence by giving a sworn written statement that did not comply with the MACC notice under Section 36(1) of the MACC Act. Accused of committing the offence between Dec 13 and 14 last year, she may be jailed for up to five years and may be fined up to RM100,000 by the criminal court. Among the assets she allegedly did not disclose involved multiple lands, properties, and Mercedes Benz vehicles. She owns so many properties that she struggles to remember them all for disclosure.

She would not have been charged if she had cooperated with the MACC. Giving excuses, and avoiding the MACC and obfuscating is very unbecoming if you profess to be innocent. Abusing the process by delaying investigations and playing to the gallery by giving unhelpful and frankly incriminating press statements does not help your case. Did I mention Anwar? Do you have evidence that Anwar directed the MACC to conduct these investigations? If yes please go to the police. Any lawyer is entitled to take a case and express an opinion about the case. But a lawyer is not the judge and it does not mean that whatever he says in the media must be the truth. The MACC is not that daft to conduct an investigation without evidence and not knowing which provision of the law applies to this case. - Gerad Lourdesamy

If you did not declare your assets or the source of your wealth, then don't you think the court has every right to demand that you explain and be transparent about it? You have unexplainable wealth and you are almost richer than the country, so it is only fair the rakyat demands total transparency. I think this is fair so that no one steals from the national coffers. We are already so poor.If you are really guilty of not declaring your assets, then be prepared to face the consequence. Why are you crying revenge? - FitnessPro

Bila bini Daim mula mengamok kat bang Non...

So what she is saying is once anwar is no longer in power, she expects the new government or the new PM to compromise MACC and force them to withdraw the charges against her, even though on the face of it she committed a crime by not disclosing assets. A crime is a crime. Please don’t bring in reforms and country is forlorn etc as one has nothing to do with another. Daim and his family’s wealth is unbelievable and we would like to know where it came from. - RZee

Here she is charged for failing to disclose or declare all her assets to the MACC. And why she failed to do so? Its not about the sources of her assets yet which is completely another but separate offence. She is just desperately trying to create distractions. Had she just fully declared all her assets as required by law this charge of failing to do so would not come about. And clearly she and Daim know the risk of declaring all their assets bcos that will inevitably require them to justify the sources of all their assets. Berani lah kalau semua itu dari sumber sumber yang sah.- Justice