Ragu, an immigrant in the land of his birth. Why so? When he was rescued from an abusive stepmother at the age of 4 and placed in a welfare home, no one attempted to obtain for him a proper birth certificate and without such an all-important document, his citizenship status was in doubt and by extension, he has been denied an IC; the identity card which is so important to live as a citizen in this country.

But one would have thought, that after 33 years, even if he had been born in some foreign land it would be logical for him to have received some form of an amnesty and be given his citizenship.

Would it have been different though if Ragu had been Malay or if a ‘bin Abdullah’ (as so often given to a convert to Islam) had come after his name.

As a person of unknown birth, but clearly non-Malay and non-Muslim he has been given a life sentence as a person without citizenship. If at the end of his current temporary resident IC term expires, where will they deport him to?