KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31— Datuk Seri Najib Razak today rubbished a political opposition claim that about 300,000 Malaysian Indians were without citizenship papers.
The Prime Minister said the claim was a lie because only about 2,500 citizenship applications had been received from Malaysian Indians, including those born before independence and whose births had not been registered.
The MyDaftar initiative which covered every part of the country did not find 300,000 stateless Malaysian Indians as claimed by the Opposition, he said, adding that the matter had even been brought to the attention of the UK Parliament.
“This is a fairy tale. We only have 2,500 applications (for citizenship from Malaysian Indians). It is just like the claim that we brought in 40,000 Bangladeshi voters in the last general election, that the country would go bankrupt, and many other baseless stories,” he said when handing over citizenship documents to Malaysian Indians here.
Also present at the event were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and leaders of MyPPP, All Malaysian Indian Progressive Front and Makkal Sakti. — Bernama
