I missed a story in last week’s Irrawaddy about the resumption of citizenship verification in Rakhine State. The process was triggered towards the end of 2012 by the outburst of sectarian violence, and stalled in 2013 by disagreement about Rohingya/Bengali terminology. In a limited and tentative way, it’s now back on track.

“As a pilot project in Myebon Township, immigration officials are accepting citizenship applications from anyone who identifies as Bengali, according to Maung Maung Than, director-general of the Department of Immigration and National Registration.” Out of a township Muslim cohort of 3042, 47 people have thus far done so. That’s clearly not much of an advance when the total Rohingya population across the state is around one million.

Nevertheless, it’s important that practical steps be taken to address the citizenship problem, which hangs over everything else in Rakhine State. Indeed, for some time now Buddhist nationalist groups have pressed for full verification, believing it will result in only a small number of successful claims – and exclusion for everyone else.

In fact, however, things may not turn out that way. Building on recent experience in Myanmar’s eastern borderlands, applicants are not required to produce a paper trail stretching back to 1823. Rather, pragmatic efforts are being made to consult community leaders in determining which families really do have residence reaching at least a couple of generations into the past. Currently, whether to come forward and claim citizenship is an entirely voluntary matter.

The name to be given to the new citizens remains an issue of deep contention. This is Mohamed Salim, cited by the Irrawaddy as a Rohingya spokesman: “We do not accept the term ‘Bengalis’. The Muslim people in Arakan State are Rohingya. If they want to conduct an examination based on the 1982 law, they need to first amend the law in accordance with international standards, since it currently includes much discrimination, and after that they can exam us.”

That’s a fair point, and one day it too will need to be confronted. For now, though, it’s good to see something being done to tackle a damaging political question by moving people into the ranks of Myanmar citizens.