Citizenship law would not be amended; minister
Published on Sunday, 30 June 2013 21:05
Khin Yi, Minister for Immigration and Population, at the press conference on 1982 Citizenship Law
The 1982 Citizenship Law was not subjected to any amendment, said Minister for Immigration and Population Khin Yi.
"We have never said that the 1982 Citizenship Law will be amended. Our department has not officially spoken about it. However, I kept hearing this issue when I came back from my trip," said Khin Yi.
"As I have said several times before, [the Citizenship Law] was drafted for six and a half years with public desire after meeting with the people in regions and states during the administration of the Revolutionary Council," he said.
During the administration of the current government, a proposal was submitted to the Parliament to abolish this Law, which caused a debate among eight MPs.
The ministry decided that this Law was drafted after taking time and it is effective for the security and benefit of the country.
"So, we will continue to use this Law as it is now. We have official records of this. So, we are not going to amend this Law now and we have never said we will amend it. It was just a misunderstanding," he said.
Khin Yi also said there are 1.33 million Bengali Muslims living in Myanmar according to the current statistics and most of them (1.08 million) are in Rakhine State, responding to a question raised by a reporter about the Bengali population at the conference.
"On Oct 1st every year, the government used to release the current population statistics of the country. According to 2012 Statistics, Myanmar's population was 60.98 million. The currently compiled statistics show 1.33 million Bengali Muslims are living in the country. Rakhine alone has 1.08 million of them," he added.
Every Bengalis living in Rakhine will get certain official registration cards if they meet criteria listed in 1982 Citizenship Law, he said.
It's up to the election commission to decide on whether the Bengalis holding the cards have the right to vote in the coming election or not, he added.
Analysts say that the number of Muslims living in Myanmar may be more than 4% of the country's population previously released by the government as to the current official statistics of Bengali Muslims.
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