KOTA KINABALU, Nov 10 — Parti Warisan (Warisan) has proposed the creation of a fast-track lane for late MyKad application in Sabah and the involvement of Native Court as a comprehensive solution to solve the issue of Sabahans in the rural areas of not having identification cards.

Kota Belud Member of Parliament Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis said the government must quickly assist the many Sabahans in the rural areas who are at loss in their application (of MyKad) with the tedious and bureaucratic requirements set by the National Registration Department (NRD).

"If we are to reduce the high unemployment rate and absolute poverty incidences in the rural areas of Sabah, then we need to create more jobs and larger economic spillover by creating more industrial parks and to intensify our efforts to attract foreign and domestic investments to come and invest in the State.

"But how will the KDM, Rungus, Sungai, Bajau and other local ethnics be able to reap the benefits coming from the government’s economic initiatives if they have no MyKad?

"MyKad is required by anyone who wishes to study, apply for jobs, operate a small business or even to open up a bank account.

"Hence, while we intensify our effort to attract investments into Sabah or build more industrial parks, we must also at the same time ensure that Sabahans in the rural areas have their birth certificates or MyKad,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

Munirah was commenting on the meeting held on November 3 between Warisan’s Strategic Communication (StratComm) Unit officials and representatives of the Kadazan Dusun communities at Inanam who claimed that many villagers in that constituency do not possess MyKad.

"I was briefed by StratComm that the main challenge facing the villagers (in their application) is the tedious and bureaucratic requirement set by NRD for ‘Daftar Lewat MyKad’ category and while the party’s unit agreed that this is necessary for case-per-case basis, it is not so for Sabah where thousands of indigenous and natives, who either only have late birth certificate or none at all, are in desperate need of MyKad.

"I will raise this matter to the attention of the Home Ministry and seek if the minister is agreeable for the creation of a fast-track lane in NRD exclusively for Sabah to expedite the ‘Daftar Lewat MyKad’ application and also the utilization of a small sum from the RM19 billion allocated to the ministry for the procurement of mobile registration trucks to cater for NRD’s outreach programs to the rural areas in Sabah.

"We must act quickly so that our fellow Sabahans living in the rural areas, especially the schoolchildren, will get their MyKads because this is one of the contributing factors that will assist us in our fight against unemployment and absolute poverty in Sabah,” she said.

Meanwhile, Warisan StratComm’s associate member, Chin Teck Ming said the Federal Government should include and empower the Native Court to simplify the ‘Daftar Lewat Mykad’ application process, to avoid errors and to ensure that only genuine Sabahans be given MyKad.

"If the Home Ministry is agreeable to the creation of the said fast-track lane, then we can replace the many bureaucracies, that cause many villagers to be at lost in the first place, with the necessary verification or supporting documents to be issued by the Native Court.

"In fact, the inclusion of Native Court should be seriously considered since the risk of errors will be higher (under fast-track application) such as the absence of the ‘H’ or ‘12’ indicator that denotes the applicant is a Sabahan or having the religion ‘Islam’ printed in the MyKad simply because the applicant has a bin or binti in his/her application and despite being a non-Muslim.

"NRD and Native Court officers should also consider including house to house visitation in their outreach because some villagers may not have sufficient funds to go to the nearest town, some may be old or even have disabilities.

"As for the issue of the KDM community at Inanam that does not possess MyKad, StratComm has informed us that it will continue to monitor the same and compile its own findings before moving to other districts that face the same issue,” he concluded. — Borneo Post