Mobile Team Registers Some 2,600 Locals In Tandek And Matunggong
Thursday, 14 August 2003 (Source : Bernama)

MATUNGGONG: The National Registration Department (NRD) mobile registration drive scored a huge success in the parliamentary constituency of Bandau with a total of 2,469 undocumented locals being registered during the 10-day exercise which ended here Wednesday night.

They comprised 1,275 for birth certificates and 1,374 for identity cards (ICs), said Bandau Member of Parliament Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.

Ongkili, whose office financed the operational costs of the registration, described the response as beyond expectation, to the extent that the NRD team had to work until late evening to process applications of the long queue of people who swarmed the various registartion centres during the period.

"In Tandek, the team was stationed in remote SK Gana and SK Lampada where respectively 710 and 576 undocumented natives were issued birth certificates and given approval for ICs.

"In Matunggong the team processed and issued 530 birth certificates and IC receipts in SK Teringai and another 833 applications at far-flung SK Lotong," he told Bernama Thursday.

"The NRD successfully processed and registered 2,469 applicants who were previously undocumented and could be regarded as `stateless Malaysians'. The outcome has surpassed the original target of 2,000 people," he said.

Ongkili, who is Parti Bersatu Sabah deputy president, said that with last year's registration of 3,111 natives in Tandek, the NRD had successfully registered 5,760 people in the constituency in the last 14 months.

"This is a massive breakthrough and we sincerely thanked the NRD for the special effort," he said.

Ongkili said that to these locals, possessing a birth certificate or an IC "is more precious than having a sealed road to their villages."

These people were full of praise for the Barisan Nasional government for the action taken to resolve the problem, he said.

The birth certificates were issued on the spot while MyKad ICs would be ready for collection at the district NRD offices within three to six months, he said. Despite the success, Ongkili said that there were nevertheless still pockets of locals -- estimated to be about 1,500 people -- in Bandau constituency that have yet to be registered.

They would be the target for another registration drive, possibly at the end of the year or early next year, he said.

Ongkili said that except for an attempt to register by two suspicious applicants at SK Teringai, and two locals and a village chief in SK Lampada who tried to assist two foreigners to register, the exercise were free of other security problems.

He said that the suspicious applicants concerned had been handed over to the police for investigation while the village chief would be recommended for dismissal to show the government does not tolerate any action to shield illegal immigrants.