'Cosmetic' changes at Sabah NRD

No great surprises were in store when Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar publicly axed the Sabah National Registration Department Director, Abdul Rahman Mohd Nor, yesterday and brought in Papar-born Abdul Jaffear Henry.

The 55-year-old Abdul Jaffear’s appointment, which took effect from Oct 6, is in line with ‘Borneonisation’ - a key plank in the 20 Point Agreement under which Sabah and Sarawak entered into an enlarged federation with Singapore and Malaya on 16 Sept 1963.

Hamid remained silent on public charges of the “lax administration” of the Sabah Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance 1953.

“I don’t debate with my cabinet colleagues in public,” said Hamid in a clear reference to Upko (United PasokMomogun KadazanDusunMurut Organisation) president Bernard Giluk Dompok, who is also a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

The crux of the problem, according to Dompok and Sepanggar MP Eric Majimbun, lies in the deviation from the Sabah Registration of Births and Deaths Ordinance 1953.

They had identified “loopholes” in the law as the main reason for the rampant issue of MyKads to illegal migrants in Sabah and expressed no confidence in the state NRD.

Among others, they also called for the department to be revamped, alleging incompetence and a lack of transparency and public accountability. Other MPs have even publicly accused the NRD of being “mean with the locals”.

“The ordinance states that all late registrations have to be done in court proceedings through a first class magistrate, “said Majimbun who heads Sapp’s newly-created Foreigners and Identity Cards Bureau and is also a party deputy president.

“But now it is no longer done. That is where the loophole is . . . this is where people started taking advantage of the loose administration.”

Something wrong with the system

The MP decried the situation as ironic where locals are given permanent resident status if there is a slight discrepancy or even minor details are missing while illegal immigrants get MyKads “quite easily” through the “loopholes” in the law.

“There’s something wrong with the system. Some of the perennial issues were about to be uncovered when I chaired the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity, “disclosed Dompok. “That’s why we want a Royal Commission of Inquiry, among others, to solve such problems.”

He cited the cases of two Filipino MyKad holders which were brought before the committee.

“An NRD Officer (in the committee) claimed the two (Filipino-held) MyKads were valid but when I wanted to get more details, the officer concerned was asked not to attend the committee meetings anymore,” said Dompok who, in protest, resigned as chairman of the committee.

Dompok, who is also Penampang MP and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said the government should not be in denial about the incompetence of the State NRD, various abuses there and its lack of transparency.

Meanwhile, Hamid has also directed the re-issuance of the “green card” (temporary resident identity card) to keep track of people living in Malaysia. These are meant for people who don’t hold either the blue MyKad (citizens) or the red MyPR (permanent resident).

Previously, all foreigners living in Malaysia for more than a year had to register for the green identity card. It had to be renewed every year but many people, except for westerners and some other foreigners, apparently did not do this perhaps out of ignorance or fear it would be revoked.

This recalcitrant category were generally considered “stateless” people and eventually the NRD did away with the green identity cards.

“We have revoked it before because some green card holders did not know that they were supposed to renew the card for a certain period,” explained Hamid. “The card is not your lifetime identity card. It is just to provide you an identity and not your status in the country.”

Hamid also pledged that procedures at the NRD would be streamlined and the department would be made more transparent. At present, foreigners are eligible for permanent residence after ten years, but not citizenship.

They have to wait a further 12 years to get their citizenship which is “a privilege and not a right”, according to Hamid. “Only locals have a right to citizenship and not foreigners.”

Long waiting list

At the Sabah NRD alone, according to Hamid, 30, 000 Sabahans are waiting for their citizenship certificates. He did not disclose how long they have been waiting and why they have to apply for citizenship if they are locals.

One problem he identified was the problem of children of Malaysian parents who are born overseas - generally Brunei and Singapore - and failed to register their birth at the nearest Malaysian high commission or embassy within a month.

These “citizens” find themselves in a limbo when they turn 12 and have to apply for their identity card. Generally, they are offered the red IC and therein the dilemma begins.

Senior citizen Yong Lee Hua @ Piang Lin, 78, who had her “MyKad” replaced with a MyPR, had her “citizenship status restored within three minutes”.

Yong lost her MyKad to a pick-pocket on Feb 12 last year at a supermarket in Penampang Baru, an outlying region of Kota Kinabalu.

The state NRD reportedly told her on a return trip that “senior citizens who lose their MyKads are given the MyPR as replacement”. When she protested, the state NRD according to her admitted that they may have made a mistake and advised her to apply for her citizenship.

She filed the application in July last year and is still waiting. Meanwhile, she used her driving licence to vote in the March general election.

Hamid explained when Yong changed her blue identity card – which has been mistakenly given to her – she was in fact given a MyKad for permanent residents.

“The old MyKad for permanent residents looks like the MyKad for citizens and perhaps she didn’t realise this,” said Hamid. “In her case, although she is a citizen, she had to register to be one and she didn’t do this.”

Sapp information chief Chong Pit Fah, in a telephone call, disputed the fact that Yong could be given her MyKad in “three minutes” and pledged to pursue the matter.

Yong’s story surfaced in recent days when Resource Development and Information Technology Assistant Minister Donald Peter Mojuntin came to know of her plight and the state NRD could not satisfactorily explain itself. The issue then re-ignited old controversies involving the state NRD.

According to the federal constitution, citizens by registration are those born locally or abroad of Malaysian citizens who obtained their citizenship by naturalization. Naturalized citizens are those born abroad.

Children born locally of registered citizens become citizens by operation of law. In Malaysia, citizens who had to otherwise register themselves as citizens, need no longer do so after Malaysia Day on 16 Sept 1963. However, this policy has apparently not been extended to Sabah and hence a long waiting list for citizenship.