Red Tape of stupidity knows no bounds at the NRD
No country in the world has an IC system.
The IC system, introduced to combat communism terrorism in Malaya, should be scrapped because there’s no need for such documentation. The birth certificate will suffice to prove citizenship status, whether Malaysian or foreigner, and in the case of the former, whether one is an Orang Asal or otherwise.
Joe Fernandez
The National Registration Department (NRD) cannot refer non-Muslims, non-practising Muslims, murtads, fallen Muslims, and those who had no choice in the matter when they were declared Muslim, to the Syariah Court. Any such reference is unconstitutional and the matter should be brought before the Federal Court, the King and the Conference of Rulers.
According to the local media in Kota Kinabalu on Tues, a lawyer’s Client, a Chinese and Buddhist, has been referred to the Syariah Court by the NRD Sabah to change the status of his son in the MyKad from Muslim to Buddhist.
The lawyer has resorted to filing an Application for Leave to obtain a Judicial Review of the NRD decision. If almost every MyKad applicant has to go through this arduous and expensive process, that means the NRD is making them run the gauntlet for no rhyme or reason. No wonder there are 350, 000 stateless people among the Indians alone in Malaya. The Penan in Sarawak, among others, are also running around half naked in the jungle, stateless.
The NRD Director General should be hauled up for incompetence and sacked for refusing to exercise his prerogative and discretionary powers in running his Department.
Why the need, for example, for a BN-Hindraf MOU to address the problem of statelessness in Malaya? Were the stateless in Malaya destined to rot till thy kingdom come in a legal twilight zone in the absence of an MOU? Does the MOU have the status of a constitutional document?
What about the non-Indian stateless in Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak? No need for another MOU to resolve their status and give them an identity? Or will they continue to remain in a legal twilight zone as a domestic pool of slave labour?
Non-Muslims in Sabah with a bin or binte in their name are also referred to the Syariah Court by the NRD when they apply for their MyKad. They have to get a declaration from the Syariah Court that they “are not Muslims and/or no longer Muslims”.
This is called creeping Islamisation, a point raised so often by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi in the pre-MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) days.
The NRD has no business deciding on the religion of an applicant for the MyKad.
When I got my MyKad, my son and I were listed as Hindus.
When I queried the NRD, they replied that if there’s no information in the data bank, Indians are classified as Hindus.
I replied: “In that case, you should classify Mahathir and Sheikh as Hindus since they are Indians. Have you ever come across any Hindu with the name Joseph?”
I asked for my MyKad and my son’s to be changed.
They asked for my baptism certificate.
I told them: “When you listed me as Hindu, there was no need for any proof. Now that I tell you that I am a Christian, you want proof. Next you will ask me to bring the Bishop, then the Archbishop and finally the Pope. If I tell you that I am a Christian, I am a Christian. I don’t have to prove to you that I am Christian. Why should I claim to be a Christian if I am not one? If I am a Hindu, I would be proud to be one. I would not claim to be something else. I want to see your Director.”
Needless to say they quickly gave me and my son a form each to do the necessary rectifications.
I obtained a replacement MyKad within a week, my son a month later.
It seems that the older we are, the quicker we get our MyKad.
Otherwise, we might not be able to enter heaven.
In Sarawak, the NRD refers applicants from half-Natives — born of non-Native fathers — for Native status MyKads to the Native Court in defiance of the late 2010 Policy Circular from the Chief Secretary to the Government. They should be recognised as Natives as per the said Circular.
The sexist Native Court in Sarawak will never in a million years declare a half-Native with a non-Native father as Native. This is blatant discrimination. Children born of Native fathers and non-Native mothers are considered Natives.
In Sabah, the Sino-Natives born of Chinese parentage on the father’s side want to play politics with their status. They want to have their cake and eat it too i.e. they want to be Chinese and Native at the same time. They also claim that if they opt for Native status, they will still not be recognised by the Land Department when it comes to Native Land because of their Chinese names. Is there a law on what is a Native name or how a Native should look like?
I have personally witnessed Sino-Natives being given the treatment at Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASN) counters apparently because they look “suspiciously too Chinese”. Even if they are the first to arrive at the ASB counter, they are the last to be cleared as checks are conducted into their background. Why would any self-respecting Chinaman claim to be part Native when he hasn’t even a drop of Native blood in him beats me!
At the same time, even black as charcoal Indian Muslims — i.e. those yet to bleach themselves into a Malay brown — loudly conversing in Tamil among themselves face no problems whatsoever at ASB because they come under the Malay category. This proves that Malaysia is indeed under the vice-like grip of the mamaks with a few Kakas (Malayalee Muslims), Pakistanis and Bangladeshis thrown in for company.
Elsewhere, as the Royal Commission of Inquiry has revealed, the NRD has been in cahoots with rogue elements to register illegal immigrants as Orang Asal (Original People), Native and Bumiputera in order to marginalise and disenfranchisement the Orang Asal in particular. This is High Treason and a heinous crime against the people of Sabah.
No country in the world has an IC system.
The IC system, introduced to combat communism terrorism in Malaya, should be scrapped because there’s no need for such documentation. The birth certificate will suffice to prove citizenship status, whether Malaysian or foreigner, and in the case of the former, whether one is an Orang Asal or otherwise.
The terms Bumiputera and Native should be scrapped.
All citizens by operation of law who are issues of citizens by operation of law are Bumiputera but since many people are denied this status, it would be politically correct to abolish the controversial term.
The term Native serves no purpose since many people who are not Orang Asal have the status.
The Government could consider the following guidelines:
(1) All Orang Asal are Native and Bumiputera.
(2) Not all Natives are Orang Asal but they are Bumiputera.
(3) Not all Bumiputera are Orang Asal or Native.
Natives and Bumiputera should not be eligible to own Tanah Adat or Customary Rights land.
Malay Reservation Land should not be considered Orang Asal or Customary Rights land but land which the British earmarked in Malaya on sovereign Thai territory to get squatters from Nusantara out of the way so that they could plant rubber and mine tin.