Identity as citizenship and the human rights
This essay will be discussing about one of the three types of Brunei’s citizenship. Brunei citizenship is divided into three categories. It is categorise by color which are yellow, purple and green and these color will be the color of the identity card hold by each of Brunei citizenships according to which citizenship they are categorised. In Brunei Darussalam, different identity card holder will get different specialty offered by the Brunei’s government because in Brunei Darussalam, Brunei government is responsible for its citizen welfare. Specialty means welfare in terms of education, health care and job offer. The welfare given is different from one identity card holder to another.
IDENTITY AS CITIZENSHIP AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS
The focus of this essay will be on the purple card holder and my focal point is on students. The issue will be discuss after I elaborate the details of the purple citizenship status and their human rights in their stay in Brunei Darussalam. The purple card holder is for a citizen who came into Brunei Darussalam and married to a Brunei woman. This citizenship will also descent to their children if the father are not a local Bruneian. The child whose father holding the purple citizenship is categorise the same as their father’s citizenship even though they are born in Brunei. Purple card citizenship can also be given to people who plan to live permanently in Brunei Darussalam. The specialty given to the purple citizenship is different from what is given to the yellow card citizenship. Yellow citizenship is the pure citizenship which is called as local people. There is another citizenship status in Brunei which is a green card holder which will not be include in this discussion but the best description is this type of citizenship is for temporary foreign worker who work in Brunei with two years renewable visa.
The local people are the community who are given the specialty from the government in terms of education, health care and job offer. Local students are given scholarship for education. They do not have to pay anything for their primary school and secondary school even texts books are provided without any expense demands. Unlike the purple card citizenship, although they are born in Brunei they have to pay the school fees. The school fee is paid monthly and the cost will be increasing as they went to a higher level of education. Regarding health care, people with purple citizenship have to pay the amount of BND$30 for every prescription unlike the local citizenship which is the yellow card holder they only paying an amount of BND$1 for their prescription. They also have to pay for their stay if they were admitted in the hospital while local people pay nothing.
Other than that, the purple card holder also cannot work as a government staff only until they get their yellow citizenship. The issue that questions this situation is why as a permanent citizenship (purple card holder) do not get the government specialty even though they have been staying in Brunei permanently and even some of them are born in Brunei. In Brunei if a local resident (yellow card holder) students applying for university they have to have an outstanding result in order to get a scholarship. If they are qualified with their result they will continue their study to the university and they will be given monthly allowance by the government. Unlike the purple citizenship, even though they get an outstanding result but they cannot enter the university by scholarship. They have to pay the school fee which is at the amount of BND$4000 per semester and this will cost them an overall of BND$24,000 for the whole degree course which took four years to be completed.
As of the different welfare, occur some cases in Brunei where some parents did not afford to pay their children’s school fee and despondently their children are categorise as a very outstanding student in school. Sometime the students have to quit even at their early primary or secondary school because they could not continue their study due to financial matter. What makes it as a fair decision to differentiate a student with foreign father to pay for their education but they have been in Brunei since they born and are not going to another place to stay and grow other than in Brunei. If the government let them get the same benefit as the local resident will that harm the government in any way? This is the question which really needs a clear explanation especially for those who faced this situation.
The children are considered as Brunei asset but why they have to be treated like foreigner. If the government cannot make any change to this children welfare who else can support their future. If the government cannot overcome this situation what will happen in the future if the number of unemployment is increasing. This would trouble the country and even adverse the future of Brunei because of the regardless of some outstanding asset.
Below are the law and regulations of Brunei Government for applying the yellow card citizenship as stated in Brunei National Registry Members Section. Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011. The yellow card citizenship are recognise as the people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. Only this people are eligible to get the welfare specialty given by the government. So in order to get the entire welfare from the government the resident with purple card holder can apply to change their purple card to yellow by the following regulations.
ABSOLUTE EFFECTIVE BY THE LAW (CHAPTER 4 OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI)
Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam:
1 – Section is recognized as the People’s Representatives of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
2 – Assign legally in the country while the application is made.
REGISTRATION BY [Chapter 5 (1), 6 (1) and 8 (1) OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI]
CHAPTER 5 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN IN STATE
Requirements for Applying for Status as the People of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam:
The applicant has reached 18 years when the application is made
The applicant is recognized as permanent residents to have Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 12 years from the date of issue
Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application
Qualifications to people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam:
Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned)
Malay Language Examination
Citizenship Status should divest Origin
Obedience Oath lift Seta (after obtaining consent of His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
CHAPTER 6 (1) APPLICATION STATUS BY FATHER / MOTHER / PARENTS lift CITIZENS OF BRUNEI
Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made
Father / Mother / Parent Adoption is recognized as a people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
Legally residing in Brunei Darussalam during the application is made.
Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned)
Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status
CHAPTER 8 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN ABROAD
Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made
The application is recognized as permanent residents with Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 20 years from the date of issue
Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application.
Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam
Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned)
Passed the Malay Language
Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status
Faithful Obedience Oath lift (after getting Perkenaan His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam)
As the regulation stated in the law of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei it shows that it is applicable to be the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam as long as they are qualified according to the law and regulation of National regulation. Somehow what can be seen from the regulation is it took a very long time for a purple card citizen to become and even apply the yellow citizenship. It is at some points wasting their time waiting and also wasting their money to spend on expense demand as a purple citizenship while at the end they will still to be recognized as a yellow citizenship.
Therefore in this case time is really matter because through time it shows how much we spend for the expense demand and we could thing how worth it is to spend that amount of money just to go through that time estimation stated in the regulation. What if within the time the students are not be able to continue their study just because they cannot afford to pay the fees and after a long time when they get the yellow citizenship but at that time it is already impossible for them to continue their study because of their age factor. In Brunei there is school regulation where only certain age can enter certain level of education as stated in Education System. Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. If they could not continue their study just because of this matter then who are to be blame and who are to be responsible for their future. According to regulation on chapter 5(1) for applicants who born in Brunei. They can only apply the yellow citizenship if they reach their age of 18 years old. But if we think about this prudently why do the parents have to pay for their education until they reach their age of 18 years old and then after that they are conform to be a local citizenship. This is a waste of money.
Of course in terms of future it is sometimes under the responsibilities of their parents. But what if the father earns low income just because he cannot work with the government. The government cannot offer any job and he has to work at private sector with low salary because he is still waiting for the yellow citizenship and he could not get the job offer by the government since he is still holding the purple citizenship. This will affect the future of their child especially when they have number of children to depend on them. As stated in Job Vacancy. Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 which is showing the conditions for applying government job as below:
General Conditions:
The applicants of the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.
The applicant knowledge of kerasmian religion, customs, culture, social development, economics and politics of Brunei Darussalam.
Willing to work anytime outside normal working hours on working on a rotation basis (shift) or during public holidays and also be willing to serve in any district in the country.
In order for a child to rely on their father’s citizenship as stated in the regulation chapter 6(1) the father has to have a permit of 20 years as a purple citizenship (permanent citizenship) and the child must not yet reach the age of 18. Let’s say the father has not reach the estimation time staying in Brunei for 20 years and the child are already eligible to apply the yellow citizenship, this would delayed the child from making the application for the yellow citizenship until they reach their age of 18 years old. There are also cases happen to purple citizen students where they have to postpone from entering the university because they have to wait until they reach their age of 18 years old to make them eligible to get the scholarship to enter the university as the regulation stated in admission. Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011.
They also do not have any option for example to work with the government even though the finished their study in the government school by fee because they have to have the yellow citizenship. In cases like this also happen that the child cannot make the application to get the yellow citizenship at all because if they already reach their age of 18 and was born abroad and their father have not reach the 20 years being a permanent resident they are no longer eligible to make an application. This is because as stated in chapter 8(1) if applicants are born abroad they are only eligible to make application before they reach the age of 18 years old. They also having problem to apply for scholarship to study abroad.
In Brunei, students with outstanding A level result will be eligible to get study abroad scholarship but the condition is they must be holding the yellow citizenship as stated in Scholarship. Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. For students who are holding purple citizenship, they cannot apply for this scholarship even they have got a very excellent result. Therefore some of them who did not afford to pay for a very expensive school fee cannot continue their study to a higher level of education especially university. Sometime they have to waste their time waiting for their citizenship application to be approved by the Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei.
For applicants stated in chapter 8(1) the law and regulation of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei for applicants who was born abroad in order to be have the yellow citizenship of Brunei they have to pass their Malay Language Test. If they do not pass the test they have to try until they can get through and qualified to be the yellow citizenship. In this cases happen that they have to try for so many years to be qualified but what is worth trying in years in order to get the scholarship if the scholarship has limit the requirement only to students who is below 25 years old. In Brunei if someone is to apply for education scholarship they must be not more than 25 years old. If someone with purple citizenship are recognised as the yellow citizenship after their age of 25 years old than what is worth fighting for doing the test in years while according to their academic qualification they are actually qualified to continue their study.
For those who can afford to pay for their education to university level and manage to complete their degree with outstanding qualification that does not mean that they can work with the government. This is because the regulation to work with the government is they must have a yellow citizenship. If they do not qualified in terms of citizenship their academic result will not be considered by the government even though they are qualified in terms of academic qualification. In the end they have to spend years working with private sector and earn lower income which is not suitable for their academic qualification and what have they been going through will continuously happen to their children as well. Some of them also have to move to other country to seek for appropriate and suitable job for their qualification.
CONCLUSION
There are so many things to be considered and analysed in this issue. The regulation delayed the application in terms of the demand of the time requirements to be the yellow citizenship. Most applicants have to wait for a very long time until they are applicable to be the yellow citizenship. Along their journey to get the yellow citizenship they have lost so many valuable things such as their time, their effort and even their future. If this happen continuously to the resident of Brunei specially the purple citizen it will leads to a big lost to the country in terms of losing the intelligent assets and also will leads to massive number of unemployment in the future. It is not erroneous to put a law for people to apply the yellow citizenship of Brunei. But the time required for the purple citizenship to apply the yellow citizenship should be decreased for the country and resident own good and for a better future.
(2,860 words)
Bibligraphy:
admission. Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011
Education System. Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011.
Job Vacancy. Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011
Members Section. Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011
Scholarship. Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011.
