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Friday, July 24, 2009 Unknown 0 Comments

Statelessness in Brunei

Brunei Darussalam, a country in South East Asia, has many stateless persons domiciled there. An important note is that the number of stateless persons increase every year because Brunei does not believe in jus soli ("right of the soil") but only jus sanguinis ("right of blood") citizenship.^[10] This causes serious problems of prejudice and discrimination faced by the parents and their children especially when it comes to immigration affairs whilst traveling. Furthermore, the government of Brunei does not have any process of nationalization. After passive protests by stateless persons (who are permanent residents of Brunei but who hold an International Certificate of Identity passport not recognised by most countries) in the local newspaper, the government responded by allowing stateless persons to become citizens if they sit for a written exam on their language proficiency in Bahasa Melayu (the local language). The test focuses on composition, comprehension, local tradition of the Malay race, local culture and knowledge of the Malay race, traditional Malay poems, the Royal Malay jargon and the names of the persons currently holding high government positions in the government such as ministers. This method of initiation is not without its flaws; many people do not know the language or local Malay culture, especially since many of such stateless persons are of Chinese nationality and because many of these cultures tested on are no longer prominent.

Many who go for this exam take breaks from their work to go for tuition and private study for months just to obtain such knowledge for the exam. Those who do, end up with more local traditional knowledge than most of those people who are granted citizenship naturally by birth. Many people pass this exam but many more others fail and keep on failing after numerous tries. Furthermore, the application process takes years each time. This process has been said to serve no purpose but to deny as many people as the government can from gaining citizenship. Many PR stateless persons feel that such steps by the government are unfavorable and citizenship should be granted to them by right of their birth on Brunei soil. Such practices are in contravention of Article 7 of Convention on the Rights of the Child^[11] which Brunei ratified on 26 January 1996.^[12] Article 7 states the following:

1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.

p/s: Stolen from wikipedia