He wants to be a Malaysian.......

15 years ago, an Australian came to Malaysia to work. He fell in love with the country and apply for a Permanent Resident status 9 years ago. But our immigration department did not even bother to reply him. I guess this is part of the syllabus of our government courteousy campaign. Since then, he has to apply for visa renewal on monthly basis or travels a few hundred KM to the Thai border town and re-enter Malaysia to get a Three month visitor visa.

The man is Sir Norman Frank Sisson. And he is 75 years old now.

With his wealth of life experiences, he can definitely add to the cultural diversity and contribute to the overall well being of Malaysia. He is wiling, patient, and hopeful to get the official recognition to be acknowledge as Permanent Residence of Malaysia. Why and on what grounds are we ignoring his application ? Is it because of his country of origin ?

I believed, there are many foreigners who are less qualified than Sir Norman, are give PR status. Otherwise, how come there are so many Indonesians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis petty traders ( with blue identity cards ?) in ChowKit street ? Why are these lesser qualified foreigners are accorded better priority ?

The least the immigration Department can do, is to acknowledge Sir Norman's application, and officially write to him the qualifying criteria for acceptance as Permanent Resident. Perhaps, it is high time now, our “caring government” published the criteria to all PR status applicants. If their applications are rejected, highlight to them which of the criteria are not met, and gave them the opportunity and time frame to meet the criteria. Hello, there is this little decency called transparency. We have been talking about it, we even go around the world telling other countries to practice it. For a start, why not we start practicing it here in Malaysia ?

Why subject an old man who genuinely love Malaysia to unnecessary mental anguish ? Please remember, 15 years ago, he did rendered his management expertise to help run a factory and indirectly contributed to the economic well-beings of Malaysia. It is indeed a shame that we now forget his little budi and jasa. Maybe we come from a culture of memang pandai melupa. Saya Napoleon, you siapa ?

We have been talking about brain drain in Malaysia. The government has been hanging out carrots all over the place to seduce “successful” but unpatriotic Malaysians to come back. Here, we have a brain with wealth of experiences applied to become a Malaysian, and we conveniently ignore him to let the brain drain out. Sir Norman, I sincerely hope and pray that, your application for PR status will be successful. In the time, please do not forget to enjoy Ipoh's famous white coffee and bean sprouts chickens. May God with his amazing grace bless you with good health and happiness.

Om Namo Amithaba Buddha.

Still hopeful he will get PR

NST04 Jul 2006
M. Husairy Othman

IPOH: Sir Norman Frank Sisson was hoping against hope for the "best birthday present ever" — permanent residence in Malaysia — but his birthday came and went on June 28 with no word from the authorities. The 75-year-old Australian held back tears of disappointment at a small celebration organised by Malaysian friends over the weekend. "Guess I’ll just have to wait a little bit longer for my present eh," the retired marble factory manager said after making a birthday wish. Sir Norman said he received two letters after his plight was highlighted by the New Straits Times in early May, both from NST readers. "I was pleasantly surprised as they were simply addressed to ‘Sir Norman Frank Sisson, Canning Garden, Ipoh’," he said. Both senders wished him well in his quest for PR. He applied to the Home Affairs Ministry and the Perak Immigration Department in 1998 for PR but did not receive a reply. He has written to the authorities regularly, the last time was in January, but to no avail. Sir Norman first came to Malaysia in 1989 on a work permit to manage a joint-venture marble factory, which closed in 1996. By then he had fallen in love with the country and its people and decided to remain here and apply for PR. His wife died in 1984 and his three children have families of their own. To remain here legally, he either has to renew his visa on a monthly basis at RM100 a time or take a RM30 bus ride to Betong, a Thai border town, and re-enter Malaysia for a three-month stay. "I think I can survive a few more trips to Betong by bus," he said to cheers from those at the party. Contacted for comment, State Immigration Department director Badaruddin Chek said he would look into the status of Sir Norman’s application today.