KUALA LUMPUR: With voices barely audible,
four siblings shyly told a Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) official of
their love for their father whom they have not seen for more than a
month.
Maruly Aziz, 12, Sarah Nor Varah Hanim, 11, Yonatan
Adam Fauzi, nine, and Ismael Syah Putra yesterday took turns at the
microphone to speak to Suhakam�s Datuk Siva Subramaniam of their
plight.
�Please help our father. He is a good and loving man. We
don�t know why Papa has been arrested and now we hear he will be deported.
This will break our hearts as we love him very much,� said
Maruly.
Their mother, housewife Romita Hasibuan, sat at the
sidelines teary-eyed, giving encouragement to the children through
gestures like pats on their back.
The children arrived at Suhakam
office in Jalan Raja Laut in their school uniforms � Maruly ready to go
straight to school after the appointment, while the rest skipped school
for this important occasion.
Maruly, a prefect at Sekolah Jenis
Kebangsaan (C) Pandamaran B in Klang, said if their father, Abdul Mutalib
Taib, 47, is sent back to Indonesia, their mother would have to go too as
hers is a spouse visa.
�Then we would have to leave our home and
our lifes here too, and we do not want to do that. Malaysia and the life
here is all we know,� he said.
Maruly and his siblings were born in
Klang. As their father was granted permanent resident status, they were
issued with Malaysian birth certificates.
Their father, a
self-employed, was detained by the National Registration Department (NRD)
on March 23. He was later brought to the Immigration
headquarters.
�From the department, he was sent to the detention
centre in Sepang and he has been there ever since. We have not been told
what his offence is,� said Romita.
She wants to know why her
husband was detained so long without being brought to court.
She
last saw her husband at the centre on Saturday and he showed her the
deportation notice given to him by the Immigration Department.
�My
husband is a permanent resident. He got his PR way before we got married
in 1991. Our children are Malaysian citizens.
�Now his IC has been
revoked, and the NRD wants our children�s birth certificates so that they
can amend the status of their citizenship from Malaysians to that of
foreign citizens,� she said.
She said she tried getting an
explanation from both the Government agencies but to no
avail.
�Immigration only said my husband is an undesirable person
and has to be deported.�
Romita said her children helped her make
a scrap-book that was included in a memorandum which she handed over to
Subramaniam.
Subramaniam said Suhakam will investigate the matter
and bring it up with the relevant
authorities.
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