After some feedback from a friend on facebook, it seems I may not have clearly express my concern. So here is a little more that I hope can clarify some things.
My friend feels that parents ICs and marriage cert basic requirements. Medical records on the other hand can strengthen the application and prevent fraud. Tightening procedures will curb problem with illegal aliens. I do agree in theory.
But a lot of later day aliens have already gotten birth cert or mykad. In Project IC Sabah, it was alleged that many ICs were just given away without the documentation requirement of that time. If they can flout basic rules back then, they sure as hell can do the same thing now. Perhaps in smaller scale. (Project IC Sabah - Dr Chong Eng Leong is an expert in Sabah illegal immigrants problem. Lim Kit Siang has also written exensively on this issue)
IMHO it is not about procedures. The real problem is the in-existence of political will. To crack down and check on these errant activities is not that difficult. In Pekan(Najib constituency), you can find Burmese refugees there. The authorities can just go there to investigate the allegations that some of these refugees have Mykad or voted during the elections? And whether they really possess the basic documents for IC or birth cert application?
But do anyone want to risk angering these key civil servants or campaign donations by investigating further. We cannot deny that, it might be very useful for some politicians to have inside help in create pool phantom voters with .
All these years,aliens can get item 1,2,3 or any documents through syndicate and insiders of registration department. Forging of a medical card or whatever additional documents is a non issue for aliens , except for maybe higher bribes.
But its a real problem esp for the natives in remote areas. So any more tightening of procedures, will only harm these marginalized folks. Instead of adding more requirements, the government should reinforce the basic services and access to these folks.
As for the solution corruption and abuses, that's a long road ahead for every Malaysian.
2 comments:
It's not just a problem for "natives" (assume you mean Sabah and Sarawak bumis?). It's also a big problem for some poor rural folk in Semenanjung especially Indians, whose families have not been able to obtain IC for generations.
Oops sorry didn't see you mentioned those other rural residents in the previous post.
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