REMOVE ‘ISLAM’ FROM OUR IDENTITY CARDS, WE ARE NOT MUSLIMS – ORANG ASLI TICK OFF PUTRAJAYA FOR COMPELLING THEM TO BE MUSLIM

THE Temiar Orang Asli in Gerik, Perak, have had “Islam” added to their identity cards without their consent and want the government to remove the religious status from their MyKad.

Ajang Aluej from Kg Sg Papan said the villagers have never converted nor recited the shahada or Muslim creed, yet they were issued identity cards which stated that they were Muslims.

“We have never recited, there has never been an ustaz to witness a conversion to Islam,” Ajang told The Malaysian Insight on a recent visit to the village.

“All of a sudden, we find that we were registered as Muslims on our identity cards.”

Ajang also said the manner in which the National Registration Department (NRD) decided who was Muslim was confusing and not uniform.

For instance, he said, there were Orang Asli tribesmen whose identity cards did not state any religion – as is the case for non-Muslims – yet, “bin” for men and “binti” for women had been added to their names. These denote their status as Muslims.

In other cases, the NRD also failed to register their names accurately.

“They (the NRD) chose the names themselves. They do it as if we don’t have rights to our own identity,”   said Ajang.

“They have violated our rights as humans. They want to play God and determine our identities,” he added.

In Kg Sg Papan, which has 86 residents, every resident complained of similar problems with their MyKad.

The Sg Papan residents were assisted by the state Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) to obtain their identity cards.

Jamal Endi, another Temiar tribesman from Kg Ong Gelmol, said he is in a similar situation.

His identity card has “bin” inserted into his name, even though he is not a Muslim.

Jamal Endi’s MyKad shows ‘bin’, which he says was an arbitrary decision by the NRD. – The Malaysian Insight pic, July 22, 2019.

Ordinarily, non-Muslim Orang Asli MyKads would use “anak” (son of) in their names instead of “bin”.

He said his wife was also wrongly registered as a Muslim but since he was not, his child had been given the surname “Abdullah” instead of Jamal.

“Hence my child was registered by the NRD as the child of Abdullah instead of Jamal,” he said.

He said he asked NRD officials but was told that this was because his wife’s status was Muslim.

“I don’t understand why my child became anak Abdullah instead of anak Jamal. My child’s father will be known as Abdullah, instead of Jamal,” he said.

Ajang added that even though the community is not against Islam, they felt that it was unfair to be forced to embrace the faith, especially if they had no intention of doing so.

“We do not say that Islam is wrong. Islam is the truth and the Orang Asli have a high reverence for the religion.

“However, conversion should be made with consent and not against our will. We should have the desire to embrace the faith ourselves. Others should not determine that,” he said.

Kg Sg Papan and Kg Ong Jelmol are among the five Orang Asli communities from Gerik that staged a protest in Parliament last Tuesday and handed over a memorandum to the prime minister.

Among the problems they highlighted was the “forced conversions” of their tribes to Islam.

Perak Jakoa director Khairul Nizam said a report on the Orang Asli’s claims of forced conversions have been submitted to the state department for further action.

Khairul told The Malaysian Insight that further engagement is needed because the issue involved other government agencies.

“On this issue of religion, we have to have a sit-down meeting to discuss the matter and report it to Jakoa headquarters.

“As it involves religion, it is sensitive and warrants further discussion. It is not limited to Jakoa alone, but involves other stakeholders.”

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com