FOR 10 years, a former pastor has been waiting for a medical explanation for a large lump he has on his upper left arm.

Purait Arun, a 75-year-old ethnic Murut living in the village of Batu Mulong, Ba Kelalan in Sarawak’s northernmost district of Lawas, cannot get to the nearest medical facility that can do the test – the Miri hospital 258km away – as he does not have a valid identity card.

To get to Miri, he has to either fly or take the road, but without the document, he cannot travel. 

Purait holds a colonial-era green identity card.

Social activist Agnes Padan told The Malaysian Insight she applied to the Home Ministry for visitor’s pass that would enable Purait to travel to Miri. The request was denied.

In 2018, Purait, a retired Sidang Injil Borneo pastor, was to have travelled to the Miri hospital for a magnetic resonance imaging and biopsy test.

“The test never took place because the hospital cancelled the appointment citing Purait’s residence status,” Padan said.

Purait’s situation is similar to that of many Orang Ulu living along the Sarawak-Kalimantan border. Many people in the rural area, facing transport difficulties, fail to register births and deaths. This was particularly prevalent during the British colonial era.

His IC shows his place of birth was “Indonesia”, which his family disputes.

They say he was born in Sarawak after the war ended in 1945 but his parents failed to report his birth. When he finally applied for an identity card, he was issued with the green IC. He also received a form to fill out from the National Registration Department, but he lost the form.

Purait’s wife and their 10 children are Malaysian.

His plight caught the attention of Padan at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. She helped his apply for citizenship. The application was rejected. She then applied for a MyKhas (green card) for him. This was also denied.

Pada said the NRD suggested that she write to the Indonesian consulate-general in Kuching for a declaration that Purait has never held an Indonesian passport. She did but even after producing the letter from the Indonesian consulate, he was still denied papers by the Immigration Department to leave Lawas for medical treatment.

Padan said she wrote to the Home Ministry and Immigration Department this year via the online public complaints management system about Purait’s plight.

The system is supposed to speed up and facilitate the process of submitting feedback to government agencies but Padan said the Home Ministry has yet to respond to her request.

Padan has also sent a video message to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution describing Purait’s plight.

She said as long as the Home Ministry refuses to give Purait his papers to travel, he will not get the medical treatment he urgently needs. – April 16, 2023.