Seven months to update NRD record: Illogical, says PAS

Aug 5: Why has it taken seven long months for the National Registration Department to update details of a permanent resident who was given Malaysian citizenship on January 31?

The question is posed by PAS Youth Exco Suhaizan Kaiat.

“We are not talking about one, but thousands of cardholders.

"It is illogical that all of them came to collect their cards at the same time. This raises suspicions,” Suhaizan said.

Earlier, the NRD said Mismah, who was listed as having a red MyPR card only to have her status changed shortly after to that of a blue MyKad holder following revelation that she was a registered voter, was granted citizenship on January 31 this year after getting her PR status on July 17, 1982.

Its director general Jariah Mohd Said maintained that Mismah was granted citizenship under Article 19 of the Federal Constitution.

Election Commission chairman Abdul Aziz Yusof had blamed the sudden change of Mismah's citizenship status on "technical glitches". But the EC's data on its website was also just as fluid, with Mismah's voter status changing to the category of "verification for the electoral roll". And it soon emerged that Mismah's case was replicated by thousands of others.

PAS Youth, which has been spearheading efforts to unearth evidences of phantom voters, has meanwhile urged anyone with information on Mismah to contact the wing.

“This is what we have feared with the biometric system," said Suhaizan (pic), on the government's move to use biometric system to solve the problem-ridden electoral roll.

"The NRD’s date is not updated and the EC accepts it blindly,” he added.

Mismah’s last known registered address as shown in EC's website is at Desa Coalfields, Tuan Mee, Ijok, Selangor.

Taken from Harakah

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Pay up RM210 or no MyKad

A grandmother waited patiently for 39 years for her MyKad but when she finally went to collect her card she was told she had to pay for it.

PERMATANG PAUH:  A 51-year- old grandmother had waited patiently for 39 years for her identity card.Earlier, this week she thought her long wait was over, when she received a call from the Penang office of National Registration Department (NRD)  to come and collect her MyKad.

But when M Menachi went to collect her MyKad on Wednesday , she was in for a rude a shock. She was told she had to pay RM210 ro collect her card.

“The person at the counter told me that I can’t collect my MyKad without paying,” said Menachi.

The poor kitchen helper did not have money and had to go home without her MyKad.

Menachi informed the human rights NGO, Hindraf Makkal Sakti advisor N Ganesan who called up NRD office to inquire about the payment.

He was told by a women officer, known as Junaidah, that Menachi had not been required to pay RM210.

Instead, the officer claimed that Menachi was merely told to bring a support letter from her village head when collecting the MyKad.

“The counter officer asked for money, not penghulu’s letter.It was a lie,” insisted Menachi, a Hindu widow to a Muslim husband, Jamal, who passed away in 2009.

This is not the first time that Menachi had a run in with the authorities.

“It’s a curse to be  stateless poor Indians in this country,” she told  FMT.

The late Jamal and Menachi have three sons and two daughters, now aged 20 to 30.

Her three boys, Kamal, Aziz and Jasmin, did not face any difficulty obtaining  birth certificates and identity cards because they were carrying Muslim names.

However, her two Hindu daughters, Santi and Mala, were not issued citizenship documents.

According to Menachi, NRD officers have always insisted that she and her daughters convert to Islam to enable them to btain the documents without anymore constraints.

“NRD denied our legitimate rights simply because we refused to convert to Islam,” she said.

Because of the conversion issue, Santi, 30, could not even legally register her marriage with construction worker, V Shivamoorthy, 34 in Aug 2004.

Subsequently Santi’s three children – Nisantini,6, Karthikesan, 5, and Eswaran, 4, were also denied birth certificates initially.

She first sought help of local MIC leaders. But she claimed instead of helping her, the so-called community leaders  ‘advised’ her to convert to solve all her problems.

Menachi then sought the help of Hindraf ground volunteers, who then re-submitted official applications supported by some legal documents, to obtain the citizen documents for her and her children.

Finally a month ago, Santi and Mala received their birth certificates and MyKads.

Santi’s children too obtained their birth certificates, leaving Menachi the only one without her MyKad.

Ganesan has donated  RM210  for Menachi’s  MyKad and she will go to the NRD office next week hoping to collect her card.

Citing Menachi case as mere a tip of the iceberg, Ganesan said the government’s MyDaftar campaign, which was supposedly to resolve ethnic Indians stateless problems is not working at all.

He described the campaign as mere wayang kulit (shadow play) .   He blamed UMNO’s for the plight of the stateless Indians

He said UMNO agenda was to treat ethnic Indians as “immigrants” and deny them, especially the poor, any citizenship rights .

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