r/malaysia

Throwaway so that this doesn't come back to bite me in the arse. I am one of the many "stateless" kids of Malaysia. To give you a run down on my situation, my father is a Chinese Malaysian, born before Independence Day and has all the relevant ID Documents to prove his citizenship (Certificate of Birth and Identification Card). My mother is a Thai national. They had three sons in Malaysia out of wedlock. My mother left for her homelands when I was four, and we have not heard from her since.

Needless to say, my brothers and I are all deemed non-citizens/stateless. Obviously that comes with many restrictions such being unable to operate a personal bank account, take loans, purchase vehicles, houses, mobile lines, own a passport, apply for jobs, apply for scholarships, invest, start a business, pursue further education, and almost every other human necessity required to earn money and to live comfortably. We were luckily able to attend and complete both primary and secondary education in public schools through application as a non-citizen, which came with no shortage of added restrictions and difficulties, but we powered through. My father took no effort to fight this issue. He was a drunk and barely capable of upholding his responsibilities as a parent.

I am an adult now and I am placed in a precarious situation. I live paycheck to paycheck working at an auto-mechanic repair shop which is the only place I was able to find a job since no other position would accept me due to the risks that comes with hiring someone who has no documentation. I also can never get a driving license or own a vehicle so I live vicariously through repairing stranger's cars. I was valedictorian in high school (science stream, with additional subjects taken up being economics and ICT), yet my statelessness became the one factor that denied me of any scholarships I was offered. I am wholly responsible for my 2 siblings and refuse any financial help from my extended family as they are already lending the money to cover the legal fees for our case. I am the only parental figure my brothers have and the largest chunk of my earnings go into their schooling and pocket money. I am barely surviving and have lost all motivation to pursue the many ambitions I once had, and as all my friends leave to chase their goals, I am left isolated. The case is not looking too good either, what with the fault being indefinitely on my parents' and not the government.

However, the biggest bone I have to pick with this is why my siblings and I are treated as though we are at fault? This added shame and denial of opportunity does not help our already fragile state after growing up with an abusive drunk for a parent. Our parents were careless and oblivious people, and we are the ones paying the price. My two innocent siblings, right out of the womb were fed hope and ambition and I dread the day they find out that it was all lies, and that we will not be given the same shot at life as our peers for reasons beyond their understanding. My parents were hopeless people, but rather than take their incompetency into account, I am forced to inherit their faults, born with no idea what crime I had committed to have deserved being slapped and treated like the slum of the nation. I am now indebted to my relatives, and the course of our entire lives are riding on the decision of one judge, who might just choose to wave us to damnation if he had a bad day.