50 apply to be ‘Baba Nyonya’ on their MyKad

Registration director Badrul Hisham Alias says the local Siamese community are given the same option to amend the status of their ethnicity on their MyKad.

JPN director Badrul Hisham Alias said applications to change their MyKad status are received from time to time from the Baba Nonya community. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 About 50 Malaysians have applied to the national registration department (JPN) to change the status of their ethnicity on their MyKad to “Baba Nyonya”, with 11 of them approved, says JPN director Badrul Hisham Alias.

Badrul said the approvals were given after the applications were scrutinised to ensure the evidence provided met the requirements, Sinar Harian reported.

“We receive and process these applications from the Baba Nyonya community from time to time.

“The amendment of ethnicity status is not only for the Baba Nyonya, but we are also opening applications for the local Siamese community in states bordering Thailand,” he said, adding that these Siamese communities can be found in Kelantan, Perak, and Kedah, where their parents and ancestors were born or had settled.

However, the option to change status for the Siamese does not apply to Thai nationals who have recently migrated to Malaysia and married a Malaysian. “They are not eligible because they are considered as Thai (nationals),” he said.

A pilot programme to allow Baba Nyonya in Melaka to amend their ethnicity in their birth certificates began in October, with the provision to be extended to Peranakan Chinese in the rest of the country from this month. - FMT