Aspiring swimmer stares at 'bleak' future due to statelessness

Aspiring swimmer stares at 'bleak' future due to statelessness


May (not her real name) aspires to represent Malaysia in swimming one day, but she may not achieve her dream due to her status of being a stateless person.

"I have been passionate about swimming since I was six years old, and participated in many domestic, interstate, and international tournaments from 2013 to 2019.

"In the seven-year span, I managed to win 59 medals," she told a press conference arranged by the State Malaysians Citizenship Movement (SMCM) in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

As she approaches adulthood, May said she is forced to accept the possibility of not living her dream of representing the country in swimming.

"As much as I want to go far to represent Malaysia, I can't go on due to problems with my citizenship," said the secondary school student from Penang, who flew down with her stepmother for the press conference.

May said she was "devastated" when a friend was selected to represent Malaysia in the recently concluded SEA Games, but she was not.

The teenager's biological mother was an Indonesian, while her father was a local.

She has a birth certificate in which only her father's name is stated.

After May's mother ran away, her father took care of the child until she turned five, until he, too, passed away.

May's statelessness renders her uneligible to attain basic necessities such as free healthcare checkups at schools and free textbooks that her friends get.

Due to mounting expenses, May also faces a double whammy when she tries to earn some extra cash.

She draws well but faces issues in selling her artwork as she cannot open a bank account.

Supportive 'mother.'

After May's father passed away, Soon Poh Lean, 65, fostered the child according to legal provisions.

According to Soon, she had tried applying for May's citizenship under Article 15a of the Federal Constitution, which allows the registration of children as citizens under exceptional circumstances, but to no avail.

She lamented about writing letters to three home ministers (from 2018 to 2023), hoping for a solution to her daughter's predicament.

When May won the Penang Schools Sports Council's (MSSPP) best swimmer award for under the 12-year-old category, Soon even went to the office of the then home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, hoping to secure a place in the Malaysia School Sports Council (MSSM), she was turned away due to the documentation issue.

"She really wants to become a national swimmer, but now she has given up, and I have also told her to quit trying," said Soon ruefully.

The press conference was also attended by the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia director for social protection, Maalini Ramalo.

Neow urges the government to look into the stateless issue and amend the relevant laws if needed.


SMCM also handed a memorandum to Neow Choo Seong, the deputy chairperson of MCA's International Communication and Diplomacy Bureau.

Neow urged the government to look into the issue and amend the relevant laws if needed.

"Imagine that in a year, the home minister goes through between 10,000 and a million applications to approve it, it is a burden to the minister and the government.

"We need to look into abolishing or amending laws that will ease to process to help stateless persons to earn their rights," he told the press conference.