Poser over NRD exercise in Sabah

The National Registration Department has accused the media of irresponsible reporting in the issuing of belated MyKads to 'stateless' children.

KOTA KINABALU: Confusion reigns over the National Registration Department (NRD) drive to issue thousands of birth certificates and MyKads belatedly to children in Sabah.

The controversy comes as various groups and political parties are pressing for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the explosive population growth of the state, coupled with allegations of improper issuance of MyKads in return for political support.

According to local politicians and independent bodies, the latest numbers supplied by the authorities of those who had not been registered at birth do not add up and they want the NRD to stop a mobile service late registration exercise it launched last month.

They want the NRD to explain how such a large number of children are without documents and the clamour has forced the authorities to change tack on the controversial late registration drive.

The re-tailored exercise will now focus on registering and issuing MyKads to students in various schools in the state whose births were never recorded while other late registrants would have to present themselves at the NRD office in the district.

NRD here was put on the defensive after the Semporna Bumiputera Bajau Association (SBBA) said the figure of 40,000 without birth certificates was unusual and that foreigners were taking advantage of the exercise to be legalised in the state.

NRD director Ismail Ahmad has since clarified that the figure of 40,000 given in a statement by Deputy Home Minister Wira Abu Seman was not only for the Senallang state constituency in Semporna, as many had assumed, but for the whole of Sabah.

‘Media irresponsible’

The number, he added, referred to those who had registered for late birth certificates but this did not necessarily mean they had been cleared to be issued MyKads.

The clarification comes after Foreign Minister Anifah Aman and Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Joseph Kurup, both from Sabah and in the Barisan Nasional government, called for a halt to the on-going exercise to prevent those unqualified from gaining Malaysian citizenship.

Ismail also warned the media to “get their facts correct as irresponsible reporting could unnecessarily incite the public”, a local newspaper quoted him as saying.

However, both Anifah, the brother of Chief Minister Musa Aman and state minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Nasir Tun Sakaran, the assemblyman for Senallang in Semporna district on the east coast of the state, appeared bemused by the figure supplied by the authorities.

Nasir has since echoed NRD’s stance, saying the Home Ministry’s directive applied to students already enrolled in schools in Sabah but who did not possess birth certificates.

He pointed out that Semporna constituency comprising Senallang, Sulabayan and Bongaya had a total population of about 100,000 and about 40,000 registered voters.

He also said that he believed the figure given by the ministry was only approximate.

Harris attacks Anifah

Earlier this month, Tuaran MP Wilfred Bumburing said it was unbelievable that there are so many children without birth certificates in Sabah and cast doubt on their status.

Political observers noted that Anifah’s condemnation of the exercise was a political ploy, given that Semporna is under the sway of Shafie Apdal, his brother’s rival for the chief ministership of Sabah.

Nasir brushed off Anifah’s criticism and called for a halt to the registration drive, saying that it is only the Home Ministry that has jurisdiction over the exercise.

Former chief minister Harris Salleh has also criticised Anifah for his comments as the decision to carry out the exercise must have been made by the federal Cabinet of which he is a member.

He advised Anifah to bring up the matter at the next federal Cabinet meeting if he has any misgivings about the drive.