Mykad: Simpler procedure needed

Kota Kinabalu: Borneo Evangelical Church President Datuk Jerry Dusing said he has discussed resolving the IC problem of non-Muslim Sabah natives having "Islam" in their Mykads with both the Prime Minister and Chief Minister. "In my last meeting with the Prime Minister, he requested for a proposal from the Christian community to assist in resolving the MyKad problem," he said, in a statement.

"Both (leaders) agreed on the need to have this resolved as soon as possible. PM himself said this should be a better of 'pembetulan maklumat'."

"However, our experience has shown to be very complicated when the matters have to be resolved through the Shariah Court. We need to work on a simpler procedure," he said.

According to Dusing, through data collected so far the MyKad problem in Sabah could be categorised into four – genuine error as recorded in the MyKad; religious status of parents unclear but MyKad holders are believers of another faith, generally Christians; those who are no longer practising Muslims but want their status changed; and late registration of birth and no proper documentation.

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All of the above, he said, would require different solutions and the focus was to tackle only the first problem where Sabah was concerned.

Dusing said he certainly did not mean to say that the error of religious status in MyKads is due to religious radicalism.

Furthermore, he said he was not implying or suggesting that there was deliberate manipulation of data by the National Registration Department (NRD).

Rather, he said, some junior officers may have entered wrongly or presumed wrongly, adding that while correcting error for faith other than Islam is an easy process, it is very complicated if the religious status is Islam.

Dusing said this in response to a statement by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman that the State Government upholds religious freedom and that the insertion of the word "Islam" on non-Muslims could be an administrative problem.

Dusing also clarified his statement regarding extremism in the country, saying he in no way accused the Government of encouraging it.

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"When I said extremism, I was speaking in reference to foreign preacher Zakir Naik.

If his purported statements are true, then the authority must take action to avoid fermenting religious intolerance and fracturing the religious harmony that we now enjoy," he said.

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