DALAT: About 30 per cent of the applications for the late birth registration in Sarawak this year have been rejected by the technical committee.
According to Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Well-being Datuk Hajah Fatimah Abdullah, that percentage was from the total of 549 applications.
“The 549 applications were made through 15 operations conducted by the special task force (PPK) this year, and from the total, 377 applications were approved and 165 rejected while seven are still under consideration by the technical committee,” she said.
Fatimah said a total of 4,098 applications for late birth registration were received from the 63 operations conducted so far throughout the state as of December last year.
“From the total applications, the PPK Panel on the ground and the technical committee approved 2,885 applications and rejected 1,213,” she pointed out when officiating at the State National Registration Department’s Outreach Programme held at the Dalat Community Hall on Wednesday.
Fatimah revealed that the various factors caused people to register births late; among others, no marriage certificate/late marriage, personal problems, negligence on the part of parents, financial problem, unidentified biological mother/died, living in the interior, transports problem, no personal identity document, and marriage problem or divorce.
“Those applications rejected by the Interviewer Panel and Panel Committee were due to the applicants not certified by longhouse or village chiefs or community leaders as Sarawak Bumiputeras because they did not know their backgrounds,” she said.
Other causes for rejection were that during the interview, the applicants confessed that their children were not born in Malaysia but they had stayed in the state for more than 20 years or that they used to possess identification papers of another country, she added.
Fatimah said the effort to solve the Bumiputera status of those who have yet to have the personal identity documents was an ongoing effort.
“Fifty operations had been planned for this year, starting from 25 January; like the one we are holding here in Dalat today where 15 applications have been received. Among the applications are for late registration for identity card, late birth registration, late death registration, birth certificate amendment, status checking and identity card replacement,” she disclosed.
At the event, she also presented personal identity documents to six applicants from Dalat District and Igan Sub-District.
Also present were Dalat District Officer Kueh Lei Poh, Senior Assistant Director of National Registration Department Sarawak Norazian Md Noh and local community leaders.
