THE quickness in granting Bumiputera status to the Sarawak governor’s Arab wife, Ragad Kurdi Taib, and her two sons from a previous relationship has been called into question by the state opposition.

While state Pakatan Harapan and DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen refuses to comment on the 37-year-old Ragad and her children becoming Melanau, he, however, questioned the state government’s move to fast-track their applications.

“There are hundreds of thousands of true Sarawakians who have not gotten their MyKad and birth certificates,” said Chong, who, this morning, went to the court library in Kuching to look up the Sarawak Government Gazette, to verify a picture of a copy of the gazette that has gone viral online.

He said the applications of “true Sarawakians” were still sitting on the desk of State Secretary Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani.

“Why can’t he sign them?”

The Bandar Kuching MP said Morshidi and the state government “should be as efficient and expedient” in processing the applications of “local-born, true Sarawakians” who had no identity documents as they had been in the case of Ragad and her sons.

Chong said spouses of Sarawak residents who had lived in the state for 20 to 30 years “can’t even get PR (permanent resident) status”.

Ragad, the reportedly Syrian-born wife of 82-year-old state Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, and her sons, Nizar Mahmoud Madi and Sam Mahmoud Madi, were made Melanau under Section 20 of the state’s Native Court Ordinance 1992 and rule 17F of the Native Court Rules 1993.

The Resident’s Native Court in the Kuching division published their status as “natives in Sarawak” on July 24 last year, and it was gazetted on November 9.

The Melanau are the state’s fifth-largest ethnic group, and are found predominantly on the coastal belt around Mukah in central Sarawak.

Chong, who said he did not know whether Ragad and her sons had met the legal requirement of speaking the Melanau language or knowing about the group’s customs to qualify as Melanau, added that as a native, “she has more status than me” and “she has more rights than most Sarawakians”.

DAP’s Pujut assemblyman Dr Ting Tiong Choon said he would not object to Ragad and her sons gaining Malaysian citizenship, but opposed their status as natives.

“As citizens, they can give valuable contributions to society. But as natives, no.”

Dr Ting, who is facing difficulty gaining PR status for his Taiwanese-born wife, also questioned the state government’s fast-tracking of Ragad and her sons’ applications.

“What about the many thousands of stateless children who were born here, grew up here, and yet, still have no identity (papers)? What a joke.”

At the court library this morning, Chong found out that Ragad is a registered voter in the Pantai Damai state seat and Santubong parliamentary seat. – February 1, 2018.