MyKad: So They Have Spoken!

Now that the poor 12 year old girl who had felt so distraught at being denied her identity card that she had allegedly attempted to take her own life by drinking bleach has finally got her MyKad , all is well that ends well?

Well, all's well that should end well indeed.

But how many more such cases like the poor child's are there, still to be resolved?

We believe that there are more such cases still pending that are causing unnecessary headaches and distraught (if not suicidal tendencies) to the affected persons and their families.

And despite what we have been told by officialdom that there had indeed not been any problem in granting the MyKad to the poor child, we are not convinced that things would have had turned out well and so soon after the matter had been brought to the attention of the press after the child's family had sought the help of an opposition state assemblyman out of desperation.

It is easy for officials to say that if the people have any problems with obtaining their identity cards, they should just approach the National Registration Department (NRD) and not third parties. However, the rakyat's experience with Malaysian bureaucracy does not give any cause for optimism.

And while it is nice to hear that granting MyKads is serious business and the NRD have to do their work to ensure that only those who qualify get them, are we really serious?

What about the now infamous Project IC or Project M, where foreigners (illegal aliens?) were granted identity cards in the most cavalier of manners.

We should have our priorities right - grant ICs and citizenship to Malaysians born and bred here and not make it more difficult or cumbersome for them than it should be, while lucky foreigners (illegal aliens?), for some obscure or nefarious reason or reasons only those privy know, receive theirs without dropping a sweat, some even getting theirs by "mail order" so to speak, as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Project IC has brought to light.

We should stop deceiving ourselves and get our priorities right.