Govt weighing request to officially recognise Peranakan Chinese as sub-ethnic group under NRD, says deputy minister

MELAKA: Putrajaya is weighing a request by the Peranakan Chinese community to recognise them as a sub-ethnic group under the National Registration Department (NRD), says K. Saraswathy.

The Deputy National Unity Minister said the proposal by the Baba Nyonya Association of Malaysia to recognise the community with their own identity has been handed over to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his consideration.

"My ministry is waiting for a decision by the Cabinet on the matter.

"Peranakan Chinese and Melaka Chetti are only recognised with their own identities during cultural events," she said after opening the National Baba Nyonya Festival 2024 here on Saturday (Aug 3).

Saraswathy added that her ministry also supported the request made by the community, saying that the Baba and Nyonya have played an important role in spearheading unity and harmonious living in the country.

Meanwhile, association chairman Datuk Ronald Gan said he made a request for NRD to recognise the community's ethnicity in January, last year.

He said the Baba ethnicity status was recognised in birth certificates during the 1940s but was excluded since then.

"It has been several decades, we are not recognised based on our ethnicity and categorised as Chinese.

"Before Merdeka, the Baba Nyonya ethnicity was recognised and existed in the ethnic group options in the NRD registration system but it is now missing from our birth certificates," he said, adding that there are approximately 30,000 Baba and Nyonya in the country based on the association's data.