Oooo! can you feel the heat. Election fever is coming. One would however expect someone like the Miri resident would get this facts right in regards to the Penan populations.
MyKad, birth certs for 1,400
the Star 19 September 2007
MIRI: The National Registration Department has approved the applications of some 1,400, mostly Penans, stateless natives living deep in the interiors.
Miri resident Ose Murang said the birth certificates and MyKad for the 1,400 were ready and would be distributed when the mobile units visit their area.
“The department had issued a list of names of those who will be given the birth certificates and MyKads.
“Many of these villagers have been waiting for many, many years for the vital personal documents. Most of them are Penans. However, there is one major hurdle we must overcome, and that is to trace the correct recipients.
“Most of the Penans live in very isolated settlements deep in the jungles, and they keep shifting their settlements all the time. We need to pinpoint their exact location and find ways to reach them,” he said when interviewed.
The 1,400 “lucky” ones were among some 35,000 natives who do not have birth certificates and MyKads as they were born in remote settlements and their births were never registered.
Some were born before Merdeka near the border regions, giving rise to uncertainties about their citizenship status.
Asked how his office would assist in tracing the 1,400 applicants, Murang said the best way was to use existing timber roads to get to major settlements and use them as bases to get word out to the recipients.
Some of the interior settlements are 600km inland from Miri.
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