Raden: Too many non-Muslims listed as Muslims

The Mobile Court system can help sort out the difficulties created in the process of the NRD issuing MyKads to Sabahans.

KOTA KINABALU: Melalap assemblyman and Sabah Rural Development Minister Raden Malleh has stressed that in the absence of a Sabah IC, the National Registration Department (NRD) must be honest and responsible when dealing especially with rural folks and issuing them with MyKads.

“There are many cases where non-Muslim villagers were registered as Muslims by the NRD in their MyKad,” said Raden. “Such mistakes will make it harder for the affected villagers and their families.”

“Such mistakes affect their religious and citizenship status.”

There’s a need, he continued, to protect the rights of the Orang Asal and other Sabahans in dealing with the NRD.

He expressed the hope that the Mobile Court system can help sort out the difficulties created in the process of the NRD issuing MyKads to Sabahans. “Through the Mobile Court programme, the applicants can benefit and sort out their woes with the NRD.”

He was speaking with the media on the sidelines of visiting the Mobile Court Programme in Melalap.

Raden added that there are also many cases where the children of Orang Asal were registered in their birth certificates as non-citizens.

He urged the NRD to improve on its issuance of MyKads especially on listing the religious status of applicants. “There was an instance where the mother of the children was listed as a Filipina when she’s Orang Asal,” said Raden. “This made the children unable to go to school or have the privilege of being Orang Asal and citizens.”

There appears to be growing consensus in Sabah that life would continue to be tough for the people in the state unless the Sabah IC, the state’s own version of the Malaysian MyKad, becomes a reality. “If there’s empowerment to issue the Sabah IC, the state can safeguard its citizenship rights,” said former Sabah Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee. “No one, under the Sabah IC formula, can attain citizenship status in the state illegally.”

“The Federal and Sabah Constitutions don’t prevent the Sabah Government issuing the Sabah IC. It will be a legal and constitutional document.”

The Sabah IC issue was raised during the RCI hearings in Kota Kinabalu and since then has been referred to the Technical Committee on the RCI Report headed by Huguan Siou Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

Briefly, the filtering process inherent in the Sabah IC system will weed out those taking away opportunities in the state from locals and also weed out the kind of errors made by NRD.