FOLLOW-UP ON MUTALIB CASE:

Wife's Application Rejected Thrice on ‘Technicalities’
(Reported by Fauwaz Abdul Aziz, June 9, 2005, 4:46pm)

The wife of a deported Indonesian permanent resident has not proceeded beyond even the front desks of the Shah Alam Immigration Department in applying for an entry permit.

Among the reasons for the outright rejection was her use of blue ink instead of the mandated black to fill in the application forms. One officer, who had summarily dismissed Romita Hasibuan May 11 application grounds that her new passport indicated she had not resided in Malaysia for the minimum period of five years, did not feel the need to even read the entries in her passport.

Otherwise, he would have discovered that it was her second passport and her 14th year in Malaysia as the spouse of Abdul Mutalib Taib, who was deported more than a month ago for being a ‘prohibited immigrant’.

“I really do not know why they rejected my application. I do not understand,” said the mother of four when contacted recently.

Authorities claimed that Abdul Mutalib’s permanent resident status, granted in the 1980s, was revoked in 1996. He was detained under the Internal Security Act in 1995, though authorities have yet to furnish the reasons behind the detention.

Having allegedly gone into hiding after being released in 1998, he was arrested on March 23 while applying for his eldest son’s identity card at the National Registration Department in Sepang.

Abdul Mutalib was deported on April 29.

Unqualified

Following the May 11 rejection, Romita said she returned to the department on May 17 together with her lawyer. In his presence, she was told by an officer that her application was complete but could not be processed as she needed the presence of her sponsor.

Upon her return to the department on May 25 with her sponsor and refilling the application forms in black ink after having mistakenly used a blue ink pen earlier, Romita was told that she was unqualified.

“The officer said it had to do with my husband not being here,” she said.

Commenting on this, her lawyer Charles Hector said immigration officers had deprived her of her rights to apply for the entry permit, have her application received and processed, and to be told of the reasons for the rejection, or otherwise, of the application.

Hector added that letters on the matter to the Director-General of Immigration as well as the Home Minister had been sent on May 26 and June 1, respectively. There was no response so far. Nor have there been any responses from the above authorities on Romita’s appeals against the April 29 deportation of her husband.

Romita is still at a loss as time is running out, since her spouse’s visa, due to expire this September, may lead to her being separated from her four Malaysian children.

Having collected more than 5,000 signatures calling for the family to be reunited in Malaysia, Hector said that the family is trying to enlist the National Human Rights Commission and the Bar Council, among other bodies, to gather more support.

(NOTE: This information was relayed to MFA by Charles Hector Fernandez, a human rights lawyer in Malaysia. He is closely working with MFA.  Charles can be contacted through his email address: chef@tm.net.my.)

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Related Story:  AN URGENT APPEAL TO UPHOLD THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN:  UNITE THE MUTALIB FAMILY!