Only 2,000 Indians without citizenship, not 300,000 as claimed by opposition: Najib (Updated)

KUALA LUMPUR: The claim by the opposition that there are 300,000 stateless Indians in the country has been proven to be a myth, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
He said the Mega Mydaftar campaign that started in January only found over 2,500 Indians without citizenship.
Hitting out at the numbers of stateless Indians, he said this number was picked out of the air just like the claims that the government had brought in 40,000 Bangladeshi to help Barisan Nasional win the last election.
Najib said the National Registration Department, the Home Ministry and the Socioeconomic Development Community Unit (Sedic) had gone to the ground to get the undocumented Indians register.
He said we want to kill this myth that there are 300,000 stateless Indians in the country once and for all.
He pointed out that the Mydaftar campaign from 2010 to 2016 found 12,726 unregistered Indians.
"The Barisan Nasional government has approved citizenship for 7,120 people.
"The government will work hard to ensure every Indian born before Merdeka get their citizenship but the problem of documentation needs to be resolved," Najib said in his speech before handing out to citizenship certificates to 30 people of the 1,054 approved.
He said one of the main problems in giving citizenship is the lack of documentation and all related government agencies are working on how resolve this problem.
He also urged those who get married in temples and have children to register their marriage and the birth of their children.
The Prime Minister said although Indians only make up 7.4% of the population but the government will work hard to ensure that no community is left behind in the socio-economy development of the country.
He said we need to empower the Indian community, there is no need to provide them with charity.
Najib said the government does not want anything in return from helping the community but the should know 'what needs to be done when the time comes'.
Taking a jibe at former prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad, he said the present government has done more for the Indian community than Mahathir who had been in power for 22 years.