There is a great deal of ruin in a nation. – Adam Smith, Scottish economist
The required form or substance of identification is a passport or an identification card with a recent photograph. Will a birth certificate with a newborn infant’s photograph on it be accepted by any government agency requiring proof of identity? But it is that birth certificate – without a photograph or thumbprint – that allows one to apply for an identity card. Endless possibilities to perpetuate fraud!
Why not a certificate of conception? One has to be conceived first before being born as a live human being. Loads of loathsome literature, litigation and legislation have evolved since William Blackstone’s Commentaries decided and declared when life began following gestation and conception.
Professor Prosser carved a niche in legal history when he declared that “the unborn child in the path of an automobile is as much a person in the street as the mother. . .” (Handbook of the Law of Torts, section 56, at 355, 3d ed. 1964).
Before he became President, Barack Obama was challenged to prove his certificate of live birth by business tycoon Donald Trump that escalated into an unnecessary esoteric debate on eligibility for the land’s highest office. Nobody questioned his birth certificate when he became Senator for Illinois. Politics is the end game, not law, justice or mercy.
The birth certificate of nation is supposedly its written constitution. Many nations do not have a written constitution, but they are not considered stillborn or unborn. Australia’s Constitution, invoking the blessings of an ‘Almighty God’ grants only freedom of religion at section 116, and no other freedoms or rights are enumerated. Thank God for the potential of common law.
The US Constitution is prefaced with the bold statement that it is the people who have created this constitution for a more perfect union. Perfect is obviously not sufficient. A ‘more perfect union’ is the preferred coin of the realm.
Some constitutions omit mentioning Almighty God, God, the Creator, the Grand Design, the Supreme Being, etc. etc. That surely cannot mean that such nations promote agnosticism or atheism because there is usually a reference made to freedom of religion.
The concept of a birth certificate is intriguing because you and I did not have a choice of parents, religion or names. These days one is allowed to change his or her name by deed poll for all the right reasons and purposes to make for the loss of consultation between parents and the newborn.
It was reported in 2017 that the then Kedah chief minister made a bold statement that children without birth certificates should be allowed intake into schools instead of being denied education. That is an expression and evidence of bold leadership because identity need not be conferred by a mere piece of paper.
The validity of a birth certificate of a nation is a crucial cause of concern for the government and the governed. It has to be the ultimate ‘go-to’ document for the redress of all grievances as the final arbiter, or the be-all-end-all lawbook. But what if all the requirements, aspirations and expectations of the governed and the government are not enumerated in that single written document as a social compact?
Some have claimed, and exclaimed, that nobody could possibly contemplate, foresee, encapsulate and include every detail into a single document whether a contract, an agreement, a law, a regulation, or a written constitution under the Theory of Everything as declared by the delusional thinking of Albert Einstein, Lord Reid and Lord Denning.
When the Malaysian Federal Constitution was about to be birthed, race and religion were not considered a foreseeable political inferno in the context of May 13, 1969. The Reid Commission overlooked this crucial factor since Malaya already had a heterogenous population with one race dominating commerce and capitalistic tendencies.
We will inherit serious problems when the nation’s birth certificate does not take the Theory of Everything seriously. Many elements concerning the social compact are omitted only to be relegated to vague subjective interpretations. A good example would be the absence of any clear-cut article or section concerning race relations in the wake of the ‘special position’ privilege at Article 153 Federal Constitution (FC).
Our national birth certificate is patiently wanting, wishing, waiting and willing to fill the lacunae and omissions concerning the concept of a unity government. ‘Independent’ public servants tasked with enforcing Article 162(6) FC need to put their shoulders to the grindstone.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
