Over 200 paperless people registered at first day of drive

KOTA MARUDU (July 26, 2010) -- More than 200 paperless villagers and their children from all ages finally got themselves registered with the National Registration Department at the Kpg Damai community hall here today.

The villagers, many of who came from far-flung villages in the Kota Marudu constituency, were finally able to obtain their birth certificates and identity cards thanks to a mobile registration station set up.

The two-day registration drive that began Monday is the eighth in a series of joint exercise by the NRD and the Office of the MP of Kota Marudu, conducted since 2002. The second day of the exercise will be held at Kpg Melangkap, Marak Parak tomorrow, 27 July 2010.

Kota Marudu MP Datuk Seri Dr. Maximus Ongkili said the undocumented villagers who had been pre-identified by their village chiefs had turned up in full force at the mobile station.

“There were also ‘walk-in customers’ who were not in their village chiefs’ lists but the NRD officers served them accordingly,” said Dr Ongkili. Visiting the station, he advised the villagers to treasure and take care of their important identity documents.

He also urged them to register the births of their children soon after childbirth to avoid hassle in the future due to late registration or absence of documents. Without their documents, they could face problems such as their citizenship being questioned, he said.

Dr Ongkili said that since it started, the exercise has assisted more than 10,000 paperless natives of Kota Marudu. He said it was carried out as there were many villagers who were not registered with the NRD because they lived in villages that were remote and not accessible.

During a past exercise, a villager as old as 80 years-old had come to apply for his birth certificate.

“The special exercise brings to the people the services of the NRD,” said Dr Ongkili, who had used RM300,000 of his MP allocation for the exercises.

“The exercise has been a fruitful one as we managed to assist many villagers and their children who are now assured of a better future,” he said.

Among those at the station was Angan Ampo,33, from Kpg Gana who works with the Civil Defense. He brought his wife Dusinah Umbil to apply for her identity card. Dusinah, whose birth year is estimated to be in 1990, said she never applied for her identity card as she had lived in a village which took at least two days by foot to get to town.

“I finally had to do it because I could not apply for my two year-old son (Airon Rick)’s birth certificate unless I produce my identity card,” said Dusinah, who is uneducated.

The couple who took the chance to simultaneously register their son’s birth, travelled to the mobile station in a rented car.