Little did the NRD think that Kamala would highlight her predicament to the press - when she did, the department developed cold feet and resorted to lying.
COMMENT
Newly-elected Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong says PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim cannot be let off the hook for lying to the rakyat that 40,000 Bangladeshis voted in the May 2013 general election.
Mah wants Anwar to apologise for causing major public panic in the run-up to the polling day. “As a result of his statement, many people were unfairly treated because their skin colour is similar to a Bangladeshi,” Mah had said.
Does racial repercussion worry Mah? If it honestly did, the Gerakan chief would not have stopped at castigating Anwar. Mah would have been just as upset with the treatment the Perak National Registration Department accorded to a mother-daughter duo.
Instead of it being ‘business as usual’, the 60-year-old mother, V Kamala and her 12-year-old daughter were told by the department to undergo a DNA test before a MyKad could be issued to the girl.
As puzzled as the mother and daughter were, they were stunned with the reason cited for the DNA test – the child is fairer than her mother!
If the department’s blatant refusal to serve its client is all because the mother and child do not share the same skin colour, this clearly is the height of racism in Malaysia.
Just because a child is fairer than her parent or parents gives no right to the NRD to reject a MyKad application until a DNA test is done.
Would NRD react the same way to a VIP whose child is fairer or looks ‘different’ and demand that they too undergo a DNA test? Or is the NRD only competent at flexing its muscles at the average Malaysian who have no ‘cables’ to latch onto?
It is a relief that Kamala took her dissatisfaction with the NRD to the media. The Tamil daily, Tamil Nesan reported Kamala as saying that the Perak NRD asked her to undergo a maternity test to prove that she is the biological mother of S Mahalachemi, all because their skin tone did not ‘match’.
“I was shocked when the so -called officer asked (me) to do maternity test just because we have different skin colour,” she said.
That Kamala refused to comply with the NRD’s demand is understandable. She had all the necessary documents to aid her daughter’s identity card application.
While Kamala had to endure such an ordeal, the situation was far easy for foreigners with there being as many as 1.5 million fake MyKad currently in circulation since the 1970s.
Recently, STAR Sabah chief Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said Putrajaya should revoke all identity cards issued in Sabah and issue new ones if it is serious about overcoming the problem of fake MyKad.
NRD ‘corrupted’, racist and ageist
Kitingan’s comments were spurred by two incidents where Sabahans obtained employment as security guards in Kuala Lumpur using false identification documents. This included the security guard who shot dead an Ambank employee at the bank’s branch at Jalan USJ Central 2, Subang Jaya on Oct 23.
Not only did the security guard concerned had access to a fake MyKad to gain employment, he was also allowed to use a firearm without undergoing proper security vetting.
“Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the NRD and the police are every bit as complicit and guilty as the foreigners holding fake MyKad if they do not investigate the culprits who started this entire mess,” Kitingan had said in a statement.
In Kamala’s case, she deserves a pat on the back for being courageous to question the NRD’s rationale for a DNA test. In the end she could only surmise that the department is deliberately delaying the application for unknown reasons.
“Why would they require us to do a DNA test for a MyKad when my daughter has a valid birth certificate?” Kamala asked.
The NRD’s attack on Kamala and her daughter’s skin colour and the big age gap has revealed the judgemental nature of the country’s government agencies.
In hindsight, the racist behaviour of the Perak NRD is not an isolated case; whether it is a deliberate attack on the Indian community is another matter.
But it brings about a feeling of deja vu of how government officials treat the rakyat, especially the Indians. Someone once complained to me how a Road Transport Department top official stretched his legs on his desk while a woman complainant sat in his office relaying her trouble.
Is it a coincidence or do the government departments have a hidden agenda in victimising the non-Malay communities?
In June, an elderly man who turned up at the Pakatan Rakyat’s Black 505 rally at Padang Merbok ‘slapped’ prime minister Najib Razak.
M Krishnan, 55 was as fed up as he could be with the premier whom he claimed failed to understand the laws enacted that he continued ‘whacking’ Najib’s portrait with his slippers before spitting out the water he drank on the premier’s face.
Krishnan was frustrated and angry with the government agencies, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall for turning a blind eye to his complaints concerning poor conditions of his public housing scheme (PPR) flats and the Social Security Organisation Malaysia (Socso) whom he claimed failed to compensate him in full despite an injury suffered while at work.
Did Najib who has tailored his administration based on the ‘people first performance now’ philosophy take City Hall and Socso to task? Or was he even upset that the quality of life a senior citizen was marred by the incompetence of government agencies?
Govt depts must learn to say ‘sorry’
It came as no surprise when the NRD denied having compelled Kamala to undergo a DNA test.
“NRD has no need for such a test since Kamala is Mahalachume’s biological mother (according to birth certificate),” public relations officer Jainisah Mohd Noor had told FMT.
Doing a complete volte- face, the Perak NRD it seems was prepared to give Kamala’s daughter her MyKad as her mother had furnished all the necessary documents.
A shame that not only does the Perak NRD practice racism among its clients, the department has also proved its unworthiness when it denied having asked the mother and daughter to take the DNA test.
The department can deny all its wants for there is proof that it did hassle Kamala and her child and behave unprofessionally. Buntong assemblyman A Sivasubramaniam claimed he witnessed how the Perak NRD treated Kamala.
“I was the one who brought the family to the NRD department after the latter seized the daughter’s birth certificate in their previous visit.
“However, we managed to get a new birth certificate for Mahalachemi. During the second visit, the deputy director, known as Premah, told the family to undergo a DNA test before applying for MyKad,” he added.
Sivasubramaniam urged the NRD to issue the MyKad immediately as Mahalachemi would be attending secondary school next year.
Little did the NRD think that Kamala would highlight her predicament to the press – when she did, the department developed cold feet and resorted to lying to ‘safe its skin’ instead of having the decency to say ‘sorry’ for disrespecting its client.
