Getting an identity card may be a rite of passage for some, as the most obvious symbol of adulthood as a Malaysian citizen.

But for taxi driver Mohammad Daud Salleh, 42, it was the beginning of prolonged 18-year nightmare for him when he found out several years ago that someone else has been issued the same IC number by the National Registration Department (NRD).

When the government rolled out their bullish plan to replace the plastic identity cards with a chip-embedded MyKad, Mohammad Daud joined the bandwagon in 2005 to get a replacement.

But to his astonishment, he was told by the NRD that someone else had taken a MyKad bearing the same number. He was then given the run-around, before he took his case to the NRD headquarters in Putrajaya.

Mohammad Daud was finally issued with the MyKad later. However, the nightmare did not stop there.

In 2007, he received a Road Transport Department summons addressed to his house in Gombak, saying that he had been ‘caught’ speeding in a car with the registration number WLY3910 - a car which Mohammad Daud claims he never owned.

He then decided to conduct his own ‘investigations’, going to the Bank Negara Malaysia and then Public Bank to check the loan status of the car, and to also present his case that he had neither taken a loan nor owned the car.

He also went to the Road Transport Department headquarters in Putrajaya, where he was shown a copy of a MyKad bearing the same number as his own, but with the photo and the address belonging to someone else.

Mohammad Daud’s trip to the Commercial Crimes unit in Bukit Aman in April 2008 was also futile, with no investigations conducted to his knowledge.

It was only after two unknown men went to his house on July 29, 2008 to ‘renew the road tax’ for the WLY3910 car which they claimed to have bought, did Mohammad Daud lodge a police report four days later.

Since then, he had received more calls from the bank, now claiming that he had defaulted in ‘car loan repayments’, as well as several more traffic compounds for the car.

He then went to the Public Complaints Bureau, which had also failed to follow-up on his grievances.

Detained by the police

Mohammad Daud also reckoned that the duplication of IC number may be the cause of his detention by the police at one time.

He said that back in 1992 or 1993, he was detained by the police over an apparent brawl in Ipoh, which he said did not know anything about. The police only released him after he insisted that it was a case of mistaken identity.

And it was only finally in 2009 when he engaged a legal firm, Karpal Singh & Co, did the NRD get back to him and offered him a new IC number, without his consent.

Refusing to change his IC number - which would result in changing all his official accounts with the banks, his licences and even his four children’s particulars - he is now fuming that the NRD’s solution is just a stop-gap measure which will cause more problems.

After engaging counsel from Zulpadli & Edham, Mohammad Daud filed a lawsuit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 4 against the government, naming the former and current NRD director-generals, the Home Ministry and the Malaysian government as defendants.

Apart from wanting the NRD to cancel the other duplicated IC number, he is also seeking reimbursement and exemplary damages over the department’s carelessness that has resulted in many fruitless trips to various government offices in sorting the matter out.

Meanwhile, it is learnt the defendants have applied to strike out the suit.

The hearing for the striking-out application has been fixed for March 14 at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

 His lawyer Yusfarizal Yusoff said it was possible for such duplicated identity cards being used to register someone as an illegal voter. "And it may not stop there."

He added his client had faced a lot hardship due to this issue but still wants to retain his identity card number. "Changing it would result in him having to change all his particulars as well as his children's, even his marriage certificate."