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No citizenship for kids
of unmarried foreigners
DEPUTY Home Minister Datuk Chor
Chee Heung reminds Malaysian
men that children they father with
foreign women out of wedlock will
assume the nationality of their
mothers.
He said the government has no
plan to offer citizenship to such
children.
As such it is not advisable for
them to have children with foreign
women before they get married.
Speaking to Sin Chew Daily, Chor
said the government also does not
encourage Malaysians who are
marrying foreign widows to bring
in children from these women’s
previous marriages as this will
only cause inconveniences to such
children.
“These non-Malaysian children
are not eligible to apply for perma-
nent residence status. They will face
schooling and other problems.
“I want to remind Malaysians
that while they court foreign
women, they must be fully aware
of the legal implications to avoid
problems later on.”
On the case of a Malaysian man
who fathered a child with a Chinese
national before marrying her, and is
now facing problem enrolling the
child for Year One next year, Chor
suggested that he apply to the
court to adopt the child and seek
permanent residence status for her
when she reaches 12 years old.
He said the child is deemed a
Chinese national under Malaysian
law and not stateless as reported
in the Chinese press.
School’s character will
Czech
be intact: Wee
deputies DEPUTY Education Minister
Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong refuted
topple claims by certain quarters that
govt the opening of a class for special
pg 10 pupils in SJKC Chung Hwa
(formerly SJKC Damansara)
may erode the character of the
school, Sin Chew Daily reported
yesterday.
“The (special) pupils who
go to the Chinese school will,
of course, be taught in Chinese,
and definitely not Tamil or other
languages.
Press Digest
by Kong See Hoh
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
“The school will also definitely
not become a national or Tamil
school, for opening classes for
pupils with learning disabilities.
Those who say Chung Hwa
school’s character will be eroded
are imagining it.”
Speaking to the press after
attending a meeting of the MCA
education bureau in Kuala
Lumpur on Tuesday, Wee who
is the party’s Youth chief, said
in the past, pupils with learning
disabilities more often than not
could only study in national
schools.
He urged the Chinese com-
munity to take a serious view of
the rights of these pupils to learn
in their own language.
He disclosed that at present,
there are Chinese primary
schools with classes for special
pupils in Kuala Lumpur and
Malacca.
briefs
Taiwanese closer to
Australia’s dream job
SYDNEY: Taiwan’s Clare Wang,
was yesterday destined to join 10
others in the running for the highly
paid dream job of caretaker on a
paradise island in Australia’s Great
Barrier Reef.
When voting for the wildcard
entry closed, the Taipei-based inter-
preter had garnered 151,637 votes
– almost three times the tally of her
nearest rival. The 10 other contest-
ants picked by Tourism Australia to
audition for the six-month stint on
Hamilton Island will be announced
April 2. Wang is almost certain to
make up a shortlist of 11 from which
the final selection will be made.
Like 34,633 others, Wang submit-
ted a 60-second video-clip applica-
tion. It was selected for the Top 50
and people were invited to vote one
of those applications to join the 10
picked by Queensland Tourism.
Wang’s crowd-pleasing effort can
be viewed on the islandreefjob.com
website. – dpa
Teenage stowaways
found on plane
BEIJING: Three Chinese teenag-
ers were discovered trying to
stow away in a New York-bound
Boeing 747 by hiding in the cabin
roof, the Beijing News reported
yesterday.
The 17-year-old boy and two
16-year-old girls were discovered
by a security guard at Beijing
airport on Monday. They had
boarded the Air China plane in
Shanghai. During a stop-over in
Beijing, they entered the cabin
crew’s rest area and climbed into
the overhead section through a
maintenance porthole, the paper
said.
The three had instructions
on their cell phones, indicating
the possibility of an inside job, it
said.
All three came from Fujian, a
province famous for its “snake-
heads”, or human smugglers, who
help traffic Chinese to Europe
and North America. – Reuters
| THURSDAY MARCH 26 2009
He felt that special classes
should be opened in more schools
to cater to the need of pupils with
learning disabilities.
He said these pupils will have
eight years to complete their
primary education.
Wee said SJKC Chung Hwa
will be the first Chinese school
in Selangor to have a class for
special pupils.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson
for the Selangor education
department said the school will
have three specialist teachers to
teach the special pupils.
The school’s headmistress,
Bai Chun Mei, who holds a doc-
torate in education specialising in
learning disabilities, is a natural
choice to conduct the class, the
spokesperson said, adding she
will be assisted by two special-
ist teachers to be posted to the
school.
23 million jobless
migrants in China
BEIJING: China estimates the
number of its unemployed migrant
workers has risen to 23 million
since January’s Lunar New Year
holiday, with 11 million of those who
returned to cities still searching for
jobs.
China is worried about the po-
tential for unrest among its migrant
workers, most of whom work in the
hard-hit construction, textile and
manufacturing sectors. Previous
estimates had put the number of
unemployed migrants at about 20
million.
Millions of former migrant work-
ers were still in the countryside, try-
ing to find work close to their home
towns rather than venturing afield
in a weak job market, the National
Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
About 225.42 million Chinese
were classified as “rural workers”
– the Chinese term for migrants – at
the end of 2008, the bureau said in
an estimate higher than that used in
the past. – Reuters
Health alert for
HK-bound Aussies
HONGKONG: Australian visitors
were warned yesterday about
Hongkong’s poor air quality in
a travel alert issued by the Can-
berra government.
The alert warned that levels
of air pollution “may aggravate
bronchial, sinus or asthma condi-
tions” and says people with heart
or respiratory illnesses should
take precautions.
It urges visitors with pre-
existing conditions to reduce
physical and outdoor activity on
days when air pollution readings
are high.
Around 80,000 people from
Australia, New Zealand and the
South Pacific islands visit Hong-
kong every month.
The city is regularly shrouded
in dense smog caused mostly by
fumes from factories across the
border in heavily industrialised
southern China.
Critics say the Beijing-ap-
pointed government has been
reluctant to tackle the issue and
demand reduced cross-border
factory emissions because of
political sensitivities. – dpa