Home Ministry secretary-general Mahmood Adam said the government had spent RM10 billion to produce MyKads since its introduction in 2000.

The highly sophisticated MyKad, which features a smart electronic chip, is among the best identification cards in the world and even well-developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom do not possess such an advanced system.

NONE "Over the past 10 years since its introduction, there have been no cases of MyKad chip being forged or the highly sophisticated encryption of the chip being broken," Mahmood said.

Mahmood also said that the Home Ministry is looking into the issue of MyKad duplication in Sabah although the number of cases reported is not serious.

He said that in Sabah, the issue was not MyKad forgery but there were some cases where one identity card belonged to more than one individual and the original owner could not be determined.

The ministry was conducting an operation to sort out the issue and the relevant authorities had started gathering data on the MyKad owners involved, he told reporters after opening a dialogue on the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 in Kota Kinabalu today.

250,000 yet to apply for MyKad

On another note, he said that since the announcement in January that 250,000 Malaysians above 12 years old had still not applied for the MyKad, not many had come forth.

"This is a big figure and we are surprised why they haven’t applied. Maybe some of them are abroad or living in remote areas or maybe it just the attitude. We don't know," he said.

Mahmood said the ministry had taken measures to engage the local community leaders such as village chiefs and longhouse heads and also visited schools to register students who had yet to apply for the MyKad.

Asked if the authorities would consider imposing a fine on those who failed to apply for the MyKad in time, he said such a move would be contradicting the "People First" slogan, and both the community and the government would prefer a friendlier approach.

- Bernama