About three months ago, my mom and I went to apply for our MyKad at Ipoh's branch of the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara.(JPN). After waiting for our individual numbers to be called, I had no problem with my application and the staff were even quite friendly.
As for my mother however, her application was processed at a different counter and the staff in charge of her application was rude and scolded her - she, a 65-year-old illiterate woman. I could not remember the staff's name but she was a woman handicapped in the leg.
Upon witnessing such crude behaviour from this civil servant who is supposed to serve the public with a mesra, cepat dan betul , I lost my temper and an argument ensued where I ended up in the Pengurus' (head of department's) office. I demanded the name of this staff but he refused to give it to me. Nevertheless, he personally apologised to me for the bad working attitude of this staff.
However, this is not the end of the story. My mom and I went to collect our MyKads recently and I was told that someone had already collected mine in Petaling Jaya. After checking a few times, I was finally told that my record was not found in their system. The same goes for my mom's.
We were then advised to re-apply which meant going through the whole application process again. We were not the only ones facing this problem. Witnessing this, I asked the CC (chief clerk - I guess) what if I applied for the second time and the same thing happened. He said it would then be necessary to re-apply for a third time.
I refused to re-apply and threatened to expose their inefficiency on my website , and the local newspapers, as well as sending a complaint to our prime minister who nowadays is focusing his attention on the service level of civil servants.
Finally, I ended up again in the Pengurus' office who is known as Tuan Haji among his staff. He remembered me from the first incident and this time he blamed the computer system. In response, I told him that I worked as an editor for a local website and knew how computers work.
I therefore refused to accept his explanation and asked him what was the point of the government investing millions of ringgit in computerisation if it could not perform a simple task like keeping a record of our particulars. In the end, he personally took our old ICs and left the office.
He came back 15 minutes later and told me to come back in three weeks, guaranteeing that our MyKads would be ready. He even signed the back of my mother's IC collection receipt and stamped it with his own official chop. Before I left I asked him, "What are you all doing?" but he kept quiet and did not answer.
Tuan Haji was unlucky that he encountered me on that particular day, i.e. one who did not accept his staff's direction to re-apply for the MyKad without a reasonable explanation. Unfortunately, many others in a similar situation quietly went through the whole process without question.
It is our duty as Malaysians to change our old ICs to the new MyKad and collect it. As many of us are working, we need to take time off from our work to do this. We cannot afford to repeat the whole process just because the staff of the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara fails to 'find' our record.
The authorities think it is appropriate to fine the public RM100 for failing to collect their MyKads after a certain length of time. Has it ever considered cases like mine where precious time is wasted having to pay the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara another visit just to collect a supposedly ready MyKad?
Upon witnessing how its staff goes about doing their job, I do not place the JPN's department's 'promise' highly. Now I finally understood what our dear prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi meant when he said 'first world infrastructure, third world mentality.'
In this case, it would be 'first world infrastructure, third world service level.'
Editor's note: Malaysiakini would like to hear from readers who have experienced similar problems when applying for or collecting their MyKads. Address all letters to [email protected].
