A TOTAL of 1,641 Indians were recognised as Malaysian citizens after they recently received approvals for their citizenship applications, said Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The National Registration Department received 3,853 citizenship applications from ethnic Indians, out of which 1,667 applications were by those aged above 60.

“Based on the promise made in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto, especially with regard to dealing the issue of citizenship amongst ethnic Indians, the government has given priority to citizenship applications for individuals aged 60 and above from the Indian community,” Muhyiddin said at a ceremony marking the handing over of citizenship in Putrajaya today.

The ceremony was attended by 200 Chinese, Indians and Indonesians who received their Malaysian citizenship.

Centenarian Thanapakkiom Sannasy, stood out among the crowd as the oldest recipient at 103. She had been living in Malaysia for the past 58 years.

There were more than 55,000 applications for citizenship which have yet to be approved, Muhyiddin said.

“There are Indians, Malay Indonesians, Chinese recipients… this is carried out to fulfil the promises in the PH manifesto.

“Whoever qualifies to be a citizen and has lived in Malaysia for long will be given due consideration, as long as they are long-term residents with good behaviour, and can speak Bahasa Malaysia well, this is an important criterion,” said the Pagoh MP.

Resolving the problem of statelessness among the Indian community was one of PH’s manifesto promises.

As at June 30, there are as many as 269,899 permanent residents and 33,957 temporary resident holders living in the country. – October 25, 2018.