LETTER | Statelessness will remain unresolved until the NRD policy is addressed A - Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas, Malaysia (DHRRA) lauds the Home Ministry’s decision to grant stateless individuals a one year window period to apply for citizenship, as shared by Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin in Parliament during the committee stage of Budget 2021 on Dec 14. His acknowledgement and concern over the prolonged and unresolved statelessness issue in Malaysia is an attestation of the Home Ministry’s increased responsiveness towards addressing the issue. DHRRA’s extensive and continuous intervention with the stateless population exposed the presence of stateless population across Malaysia, both in the peninsula as well as in East Malaysia. The plight of the stateless people was brought to the surface by DHRRA through a widespread mapping exercise carried out in 2014 to quantify the number of people affected by statelessness issue in West Malaysia.