Kod Negara 71: mistake or not?

By Lee Wee Tak

This kod negara 71 business is getting more and more interesting. It is quite clear that it is not one of the 199 country codes listed by JPN in their official website.

http://www.jpn.gov.my/kodnegara


A senior UMNO figure conducted a serious and vigorous defense on this matter.

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/info.asp?y=2011&dt=0814&pub=Utusan_Malaysia&sec=Politik&pg=po_01.htm

His salient points are:

# some of the opposition figures are holding kod negara 71
# the code is really meant for people born overseas


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"Kalau pemimpin pembangkang yang memegang kod negeri 71 pada MyKad mereka boleh menjadi wakil rakyat, jadi apa salahnya Mismah menjadi pengundi? Beliau telah berusaha sebanyak dua kali untuk menjadi warga Malaysia sejak 29 tahun tinggal di Malaysia.

"Justeru, saya minta pihak pembangkang untuk menyiasat berhubung perkara ini," katanya pada sidang akhbar selepas mengadakan pertemuan dengan keluarga Mismah di kediamannya di Desa Coafields, Sungai Buloh dekat sini hari ini.

Mismah telah mendapat Sijil Kewarganegaraan Malaysia pada 31 Januari lalu sekali gus melayakkannya memperoleh MyKad dan menjadi pemilih.
Berdasarkan maklumat dari Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN), kod negeri 71 pada MyKad adalah bagi mereka yang dilahirkan di luar negara.
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The minister has made a misrepresentation base on JPN's information. From the JPN list, code 71 is not used at all hence it could either be interpretated as

1) isolated errors (the famous 0.0001% SPR argument)
2) used for people borned outside Malaysia but country of birth not known to JPN.

Explanation 1) is not acceptable.

170,818 71'ers registered successfully as voters for Q2 2011so it is no isolated errors but seems more likely a systematic arrangement of some sorts between JPN and SPR.

(unless there is a hell lot of love making by Malaysians overseas and Tony Fernandez take note...AirAsia baby making package Coming Soon)

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http://www.sinarharian.com.my/bterkini/14277.asp

42.33 % atau 72,742 pengundi yang tidak diketahui negara asal kelahiran ini adalah dari rumpun bangsa Cina iaitu Cina (71,252), Hokkien (521), Teochew (375), Cantonese (292), Foochow (135), Hainanese (119), Henghua (25) dan Hokchiu (23).

17.33 % atau 29,605 pengundi yang tidak diketahui negara asal kelahiran ini adalah dari rumpun bangsa India iaitu India (24,663), India Muslim (2,399), Punjabi (796), Sikh (639), Sri Lanka (346), Pakistani (328), Tamil (324), Tamil Sri Langka (67), Telegu (21), Malabari (12) dan Bangledeshi (10). Bangsa Bangledeshi adalah bangsa yang paling sedikit sekali menjadi pengundi di negara kita
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If the PAS can identify the "rumpun" of those 71'ers and JPN list clearely set aside the relevant country codes - e.g. China 71, India 75, Pakistan 76, Hong Kong 63, Indonesia 61, Bangladesh 79, Singapore 66, Brunei 60, El Salvador 90 (how many Malaysians born in El Salvador that you know?)...with such a great list how could they miss out?

Another reason for KN 71 to be rejected is that JPN have their own procedures and insist on proof of place of birth when issuing IC, see:

http://www.jpn.gov.my/perkhidmatan/kadpengenalan/orangbarutiba-warganegara

http://www.jpn.gov.my/pengesahantarafwarganegara

Can you imagine a JPN officer issuing MyKad without knowing where the fella came from?

So if Najib wants to give civil servants some more, even more and more than ever pre general election bonus, the least they could do is to do their job properly.

Otherwise we are facing a situation of harapkan pagar dan pagar makan padi. Malaysia would seem to have the best immigration policy instead of Najib's promised best democracy.

Imagine how many jobs are lost to genuine Malaysians. Imagine the talk in other countries about the incompetence of our once respectable civil service and the relatively low value of Malaysian citizenship. Imagine the repercussions if international terrorists decide to have KN71s to make their bidding easier.

If JPN have issued IC under 71 errorneously, they should owe up their mistakes, recall and re-issue the ICs otherwise they would be doing a disservice to all genuine Malaysians who deserve correct numbering on their IC. No fault if any opposition members are given a kod 71 IC since when we get our IC or passport from the relevant autorities, we expect them to know their numbering convention.

Hence the call by Noh Omar that "opposition investigate" is most mind boggling and fail to fix the correct accountability.


KN 71 is not in JPN list yet it is widely used despite there are actual listed country codes which should have been used for those 71'ers. This seems to be a very dear subject matter to Noh Omar who should be very involved and passionate in taking back Selangor from Pakatan for BN.

For Q2 2011, it was noted by PAS that most of the 71'ers, numbering 29,758, are registered for Selangor, one of the richest states in Malaysia (with record reserves built up despite rakyat friendly schemes such as Skim Mesra Usia Emas and Jom Shopping must seem to look like a big jar of honey to some).

So after some thoughts, I still do not have a very firm idea what this KN71 is really for.