A group of civil society members who are deeply disturbed by the death of a MyKad applicant in an accident in Miri recently, urge the National Registration Department (NRD) to be more user-friendly and effective when it comes to handling the personal document applications by the large number of indigenous people living in the interior area of Sarawak.  

As reflected by the case of the Julan Batang, who died in the accident, she has to come all the way from her home village Long Palai, Ulu Baram, which is over 100km away, to Miri, via challenging transport situation and paying high costs, to make the application. This is just like what  tens of thousands of other Orang Ulus have to do regularly for similar applications.

If local NRD offices can handle the applications well, she might have avoided death, and many more Orang Ulus in the interior will not suffer from all the impediment from a lack of birth certificate or MyKad all these years from Merdeka.  

As a token of sympathy and support to the family of Julan Batang a sum of RM5,000 collected from an on-line donation drive last weekend, was handed over to the husband of the accident victim, Upek Usan, in a press conference hosted by Miri MP Michael Teo recently.

From our survey of the problems faced by indigenous communities in the interior of Sarawak we found that many residents are hampered by very complicated application forms - forms which even a qualified lawyer would find it difficult to fill unaided; unfriendly and non-transparent NRD service, for example reasons for rejection of applications are not provided in black and white, thus denying the applicants crucial information on how to improve their application; demands for bribes at various stages of application, eg bribes to send the application forms by courier etc.

Worst, when the documents are ready there is no effort to ensure that the applicants are informed of it, causing 1,657 approved personal documents lying around in 50 NRD offices in Sarawak to be returned to Putrajaya for destruction in 2010.

There were some improvement with the operation of the mobile units from NRD which operated for a while - but they did not visit many villages which they promised to do. Their schedule of visits are not widely publicised so many interior residents missed the opportunity to get their services. We were also reliably told that there was no new allocation by the government to support and extend the mobile unit service.  

From the incomplete records of the NRD, the department has failed to register  upward of 100,000 interior residents as legal citizens in Sarawak. Those who lack MyKad suffer from problems to access education, health service, driving licenses, employment opportunities, opportunity to open bank accounts, and also voting rights, for all their life.

They are officially treated as non-citizens-liable to face instant police arrest, despite being born in the country and their families have been around for generations.   

While these real, indigenous citizens of the country are not given legal document we heard from news reports arising from the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on illegal migrants in Sabah that, ironically, hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants had been given express service by the JPN, to become the country’s new citizens, complete with voting rights.

That is no way to treat our indigenous people especially after Malaysia become a signatory to the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) just a few years ago. NRD does need to greatly improve their service to the communities in the interior in nearest future or risk being suspected of their competence and integrity.

LIM KWONG WEE is spokesperson of an ad-hoc grouping of 27 civil society groups, comprising Lightup Borneo, Malaysian Election Observers Network (MEO-Net), Hands of Malaysians Extended (HOME), Johor Yellow Flame (JYF), Brimas, Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM), Baramkini, Tree of Life, Malaysians for Beng Hock, Damn the Dams Action Group, Sibu Bersih, Women Development of Malaysia PJ New Town Branch, Komas, Sahabat Rakyat Working Committee, Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Semenanjung Malaysia, KLSCAH Women’s Section, Serumpun Senadi, Akar tunes, Mama Bersih, Sunflower Paper, Pahang Raub Ban Cyanide in Gold Mining Action Committee (BCAC), Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), Tindak Malaysia, Lost Gen Space, Rise of Sarawak Efforts (ROSE), Peoples Association for Development and Education of Penans, Sarawak (PADE), and TAHABAS.