THE National Registration Department has stopped accepting mixed parentage as a race when registering births, according to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Deputy President Eric Majimbun.
He said he recently received a complaint on this problem from a Chinese man married to a Dusun woman.
"When their child was born and he (the Chinese man) went to register the birth at the NRD office, the department told him it no longer accepted the term 'Sino' as a race in the application.
"It asked him to choose whether he wanted the child to be of his race or a Dusun," he said.
Majimbun said the man told him he had to put the race of his child as Dusun although the child's name took his 'siang' (Chinese surname).
He hoped the relevant authority will come up with a clarification on the matter and take action in line with the concept of 'People First, Performance Now' touted by the Prime Minister.
Previously the norm was children from such marriages to be either listed as Sino-Kadazan should their parents be Chinese and Kadazan or Indo-Kadazan if they are of an Indian-Kadazan descent.
NRD officials could not be reached for immediate comments.