COMMENT | Citizenship goals for footballers as stateless struggle

COMMENT | It was a heart-wrenching letter. It touched the emotions of so many Malaysians and everyone appreciated the interest shown by the powers that be.

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...