By :
FMT STAFF
KOTA
KINABALU: It’s common knowledge that between the “directives” announced by
Prime Minister Najb Tun Razak and “delivery”, there is period of “nothingness”
when civil servants claim they are not informed or are waiting for the “order”
to implement the decision.
With
this in mind, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secretary-general Teo Chee Kang
has urged the authorities to immediately ensure that a “proper guideline” be
put in place to deal with the issues in the National Registration Department
(NRD).
“I
am glad that the federal Cabinet has cleared the air on this issue. But I
propose proper guidelines be formulated in the NRD so that the officers can be
guided accordingly,” he said.
Teo
was commenting on reports that the Cabinet had given the NRD the go-ahead to
rectify mistakes in the religious status of non-Muslim Bumiputeras in their
MyKads.
Non-Muslim
Bumiputeras whose names bear the word “binti” and “bin” have had their
religious status tagged as “Islam” in their MyKads by the NRD.
The
NRD has always maintained that it would continue to list Bumiputera Christians
in Sabah as Muslims as long as they are known by “bin” or “binti”.
The
department has also refused to entertain any requests to amend this status,
saying that it would only act upon receiving an order from the Syariah High
Court clearing the applicants’ status as to whether these Bumiputeras were
indeed Christians and not Muslims.
Yesterday,
reports quoting federal Minister Bernard Dompok noted that Najib had agreed to
allow NRD to rectify the error without having to wait for the Syariah Court
certification.
Said
Teo: “I believe it is fundamentally wrong for NRD officers to require an order
from the Syariah Court to amend a person’s religion which was mistakenly
registered as ‘Islam’.
“I
welcome the decision of the Cabinet, as disclosed by Dompok [United Pasok
Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation president] that such rectification will
not involve the Syariah Courts and that it could be done at the NRD.”
Meanwhile,
Sabah NRD director Ismail Ahmad has denied that there is “difficulty” in
rectifying errors in the MyKad.
He
claimed the mistaken tagging of the religious status of non-Muslim Bumiputeras
were “technical glitches” that occurred when NRD first started computerising
its system.
“Sometimes
we make mistakes but this is actually something that can be rectified
immediately. All you have to do is point out the mistake and we will rectify it
for you,” he said.
Stateless
children
In
Sarawak, meanwhile, four cases of “stateless” children have led Assistant
Minister of Communications Lee Kim Shim to believe that it is only the tip of
the iceberg.
“I
believe and suspect there are many, not only children but also adults, who are
still without identify cards and birth certificates, particularly those living
in the squatters in the city and in the rural interior,” he said.
He
urged the NRD to send out its mobile units to squatter areas, villages and
longhouses to register those without the identification documents.
He
also urged the NRD to speed up the process of registering the “stateless”
children so as not to deprive them of education and healthcare.
He
said he would also write to the Home Ministry to request for a taskforce to be sent
to Sarawak to look into the matter,
“Stateless”
children are a big problem in Sabah and in Sarawak.
While
the numbers in Sarawak are sketchy, aid workers and NGOs in Sabah estimate
there are about 50,000 stateless Indonesian children and thousands more of
Filipino descent.
Most
of these children were born in Sabah but do not possess birth certificates or
any form of documentation to prove their nationality.
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