Abandoned by parents, abandoned by state

K Suriaakala, who is a 26-year-old Malaysian, only has a green temporary identity card. All she wants is a blue MyKad so that she can lead a normal life.

PETALING JAYA: Abandoned by her parents when she was still a baby, K Suriaakala, 26, was not only deprived of a father and mother but was also left without proper documents.

Suriaakala said that all she wanted was to live a normal life in her own country. However, her repeated attempts to obtain a blue MyKad had been in vain.

Now Suriaakala holds a green identity card which only gives her “temporary identity” and it would expire by 2016. This status had also posed problems for her with regard to studying or finding a job.

“All I want to do is to work, any work will do, but nobody will take me,” she said, adding that she had only studied until Standard Two and was illiterate.

However, Suriaakala said she recently obtained a certificate for culinary and bakery from the YMCA (Young Women’s Christian Association).

Suriaakala said she had tried dozens of times to apply for a MyKad with the National Registration Department, the government’s MyDaftar programme and other methods but had always been rejected.

“They tell me that the problem was that my parents did not have a wedding certificate.

“They said that I needed to bring my parents. But my parents are gone. I do not know where they are,” she said, adding that she had a copy of her parents’ identity cards but it was not enough for the NRD.

“There was one time, when I was 24, when my father came home once. I asked him to help get me a MyKad, but when we went there, NRD said that we needed to bring my mother. I asked my father, but he told me ‘I don’t know where she is’. He said she has married someone else,” she added.

Asked if her father had told her the reason he abandoned her, Suriaakala said:” No, he never gave me any reason.”

Suriaakala, who was raised by her aunt M Periachi, 37, said her 15-year-old brother was also holding a green temporary identity card and she feared that he would suffer the same problems.

‘Grant her citizenship’

Meanwhile, PKR information committee member K Gunasekaran said that Suriaakala should be granted citizenship under Article 14 of the Federal Constitution.

“It’s very simple. She is not a foreigner. She is from Malaysia. She has all her other family members to prove it, so why is the NRD refusing to help?

“Just getting the identity of her grandfather, who is Malaysian, will be sufficient. Why is MIC’s MyDaftar such a failure since she went there three times without any results?” he asked.

He said that PKR would raise Suriaakala’s case with the NRD, and if all else failed, it would employ more “drastic” measures to get the authorities to help.

Alerted of the case by FMT, NRD public relations head Jainisah Mohd Noor said that the department would try its best to help Suriaakala.

“Usually our procedure requires us to have the proper documentation of the individual’s parents before we can issue a MyKad. For this case, allow us to check the details and we’ll see how we can best help her,” she said.