NRD denies giving citizenship to Chinese nationals

This allegation was originally made by Mahathir in relation to the Forest City project in Johor

(FMT) – The National Registration Department (NRD) has lodged a police report against individuals responsible for spreading allegations over social media that it granted citizenship to illegal immigrants from China.

NRD director-general Ruslin Jusoh said he has asked the police to carry out a thorough investigation into the allegations, which he said were untrue.

Ruslin said two allegations had been made against NRD – that it had awarded citizenship to five Chinese nationals, and that it had overlooked procedures in hastily granting citizenship to another Chinese woman.

“On the alleged granting of citizenship to five citizens from China, it is the work of a syndicate, which has nothing to do with NRD,” he said after lodging the report at the police headquarters here this morning.

“In the second case, it was alleged that a woman from China was ‘easily’ given citizenship.

“This issue has been making its rounds on social media since last year. The woman had been given citizenship since 2017 as she was married to a Malaysian for almost for 20 years. And she was eligible to be granted citizenship.”

Mahathir made this allegation four years ago when he attacked the Forest City project

Ruslin said NRD’s credibility had been tarnished by the allegations.

He said the department had referred the case to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) but allegations continued to be made over social media.

“For the record, we cannot just choose those we want to give citizenship. We follow the necessary procedures and also provisions of the Federal Constitution.

“There is no issue that we are giving away citizenship to people easily. We want to be seen as an agency which follows regulations,” he said.