Permanent Residence Status: A red card to Malaysia

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Jul 15, 2009

By Kazi Mahmood, WFOL.com

At last a support group to handle the task of getting a better deal for foreign spouses in Malaysia. The Foreign Spouses Support Group made headlines with its demand for clarification of the rules to apply and obtain the Permanent Residence (PR) status in Malaysia. World Futures Online supports the group fully.

The issuance of PR is one of the most guarded secret of Malaysia. There are a set of rules that are said to apply for the PR status in the country but almost no foreign spouses are given the status. Most applications are rejected or put on hold – in the cold store as I was told by an informant. One way of getting the Red IC is to know someone who knows a junior minister or a top gun in the government. They can sign a note that recommends the PR to such and such persons and this too, if you are lucky, you may be granted the PR. There is no certainty there altogether as the entire mechanism is one of a cat and mouse dance.

This does not happen to the non-Muslims alone as it happens to hundreds of Muslim foreign spouses, both male or female, who decides to stay on in Malaysia, which I did. Now I know many Malaysians reading this piece will shout back at me saying that I am living here I must accept the consequences or I am here and I am being 'kurang ajar' by asking too much. The point however is that since I am here, I have a local wife and a son born in this country, I am automatically half citizen of the nation.

I have the right to question why the PR application procedures takes ages and why the rules keep changing upon the whims and fancies of the officers in charge. It is the rightful thing to do, to write about and to make others read altogether.

However, it is not the battle for 'foreign spouses' alone as it also engages the sense of truthfulness of the Malaysian nation as a whole. The question the foreign spouses always ask when they are cornered and not given any facilities to handle their families in the country is why are the Malaysians hypocritical? The PR status is a matter of concern to all in this country.