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PETALING JAYA: If a deputy minister is allowed to spend time with his family abroad, so should other Malaysians with spouses living abroad, an interest group has told the government.
The Support Group for Alien Spouses has also urged the government to expedite due process to reunite families who are separated by physical borders as well as citizenships.
The group’s co-founder, Bina Ramanand, said that while it was “amazing” that the vice minister for federal territories, Edmund Santhara, could be with his family in New Zealand, she wished the same could be said of other similar families.
“Non-citizen spouses and children have been separated from their Malaysian families for months, despite numerous appeals to the Immigration Department,” he said, urging the government to review its due process so that families are no longer separated.
“Foreign spouses living in Malaysia while working remotely for multinational companies are not only denied long-term social visit passes, but are also asked to leave the country.”
“Don’t these families have the right to live together in Malaysia? We ask the prime minister to treat ordinary citizens as those in power, ”added Bina.
On February 28, former Prime Minister Najib Razak had revealed that Deputy Minister for Federal Territories Edmund Santhara has been in New Zealand for almost three months.
The Segamat MP had flown to New Zealand on December 23 and had not yet returned.
Yesterday, Santhara clarified that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had approved his 55-day leave to be in New Zealand with his family, in part because his wife was ill.
Other reports have claimed that her family resided there permanently, while her children studied in Auckland. It is also reported that the family had applied for New Zealand citizenship 10 years ago and had wanted to buy land in a “sensitive” area, but that the application was not approved.
Umno Supreme Council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi today questioned why a vice minister was allowed to be a responsible parent when people are not even allowed to cross state or district borders to be with their families.
