Some 7,500 Paperless Locals Documented Since 2001
Friday, 10 December 2004 (Source: Bernama)

KOTA MARUDU: The National Registration Department (NRD) has registered some 7,500 of the approximately 8,000 paperless villagers in the district since 2001, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili said.

Dr Ongkili, who is the Kota Marudu member of parliament, said today the registration exercise might no longer be conducted next year following the department's success to document most of the paperless villagers.

"So this is going to be the final year that we conduct this exercise. In the past two years we have registered 5,700 people and in the current exercise we would be registering about 1,800 people," he said when visiting the operation at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Samparita, about 20km from here Friday.

The week-long exercise began on Monday and had so far covered two of the scheduled three stops namely SK Gana (on Monday and Tuesday), SK Tigaman (Wednesday and Thursday) and SK Samparita (Friday and Saturday) as the final stop.

Dr Ongkili said that the exercise was not easy to conduct as those involved had to travel to remote areas for days and had to put up with difficulties.

"However, we have to reach these places, no matter how remote, to register the people. It is very important that they be documented so that they would get access to facilities provided by the government and their children could go to school, seek employment and other benefits," he said.

Dr Ongkili thanked the NRD for having consented to the request that they conduct the operation in the area each year from 2002.

Kota Marudu is perhaps the only place where the department conducted the exercise each year for three years and as a result we managed to register about 7,500 out of 8,000 paperless locals, he said.

He urged those who came to the registration centre to make it a point to register their children as soon as they were born and not to wait until they had grown up.

The eldest recipient of birth certificate at SK Samparita is 46-year-old Ronsuma Jomien from Kampung Sungai Magandai.