KOTA KINABALU: The National Registration Department (NRD) has dismissed online allegations that MyKads were issued to illegal immigrants in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed 55 homes in Pasir Putih, Putatan, on Jan 11.
Sabah NRD director Datuk Ismail Ahmad said that in the event of disasters such as fires or floods, the department will only issue replacement birth certificates or MyKads to natives and citizens of the country who lost their original documents in any such incident.
He added that 157 MyKads and birth certificates were issued to victims of fires that broke out in SMK Datuk Peter Mojuntin (Penampang), Kampung Likas (Kota Kinabalu), Semporna, Kampung Pasir Putih (Putatan), Kampung Suok Dambai (Papar) and Kampung Kerakit (Pulau Banggi) over the past year.
Ismail said that only replacement documents, not new ones, were issued by the NRD mobile unit on the spot to help Malaysians who lost their MyKads and birth certificates in the various fires.
He also brushed off online claims that illegal immigrants had taken advantage of this exercise to register for local identification documents.
“For example, Indonesian victims will have to go to their embassy to have their passports reissued, as we only help replace the documents of Malaysians whose original MyKads and birth certificates have been destroyed in the fire.
“This is how NRD helps the rakyat in the event of a disaster. We come to them and issue replacement documents for them on the spot, instead of having them come to our office at a time when they have just lost everything,” he said.
Ismail said victims who missed their chance to have their documents reissued by the NRD’s mobile unit can still go to their office to get their papers redone.
“I think accusations that the NRD issued MyKads to foreigners are uncalled for.
“While there are people who attempt to exploit the system by trying to register their ‘anak tumpang’ (adopted children), we are always able to detect these culprits.
“We … would know the difference between a Malaysian child and a foreign one.
“We won’t stop going to these far-flung areas, as there are many native and bumiputra people living there without valid documents.
“If we simply wait for them, there will be more problems. For example, how can their children go to school without a birth certificate?” he told a press conference at the Sabah Federal Government Administrative Complex here on Friday (Jan 25).
Ismail said NRD has registered 46,918 births via its mobile unit since 2000.
On a separate matter, he said the department would not stop its late birth registration programme in Sabah despite calls by non-governmental organisation Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) to have it discontinued.
APS said the federal government should put a halt to the programme until all village chiefs have been elected, claiming that it was suspicious how tens of thousands managed to have their applications approved in 10 years.
Ismail, however, urged leaders and NGOs to instead visit rural areas and islands to witness for themselves the challenges faced by those living in these poverty-stricken, inaccessible areas, in tying to get their identification documents.
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