It is really not right for government officials to simply insert the religion of a non-Muslim as being a Muslim in Identity Cards, Birth Certificates or other documents - when this happens, it is really so difficult for the non-Muslim to correct this ....now, it seems he has to go to court ...the Syariah Court and get an order confirming that he/she is not a Muslim...
If there is a 'bin' or a 'binti' in a name, we Malaysians should reasonably know that this 'bin' or 'binti' is not evidence or proof that one is a Muslim..
Orang asli in Semenanjung Malaysia also face similar problems - even when they go register the name of their child, some officers insert the 'bin' or 'binti' into the names children ...This used to happen, is it still happening?
This wrongly inserting that one is a Muslim causes a lot of problems - usually when it comes to marriage, etc -
Is it policy...or is it just inefficiency?
Native Christians 'converted' by state policy
COMMENT When Juinah binti Paulus,
a native Christian, went to the National Registration Department (NRD)
to get her new identity card, the NRD changed her religious identity to
Islam without her knowledge nor consent.
This is not unusual. Many native or bumiputera Christians in Sabah and
Sarawak with bin (son of) or binti (daughter of) in their names, are
automatically classified as Muslims in their identity cards, known as
MyKad. Once this is done there is virtually no remedy, except to wait in
an administrative purgatory.
Christians and non-Muslims consider this as backdoor conversion or “MyKad Islamisation”.
The NRD denies this is done as a government policy whenever it is confronted and put the blame on “technical glitches”.
The then director of the NRD in Sabah, Ismail Ahmad (left),
is reported as acknowledging that, “While there have been cases where
Christians in Sabah have been ‘converted to Islam’ by the NRD, simply
because they have ‘bin’ or ‘binti’ in their names, he described those
incidents as ‘technical glitches that occur due to the data entered into the department’s database when they first started the computerisation system.”
“I admit that sometimes we make mistakes, but this is actually something
that can be rectified immediately. All you have to do is come to the
office to point out the mistake and we will rectify it for you,” Ismail
had said.
However, this is not that simple nor the policy of the NRD head office in Putrajaya, the country’s administrative capital.
In a meeting in 2012 with the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship
(NECF) and the NRD’s director-general, NECF in an official statement
pointed out that, “At the meeting with NRD officials, NECF also raised
the issue of East Malaysian Christians whose religion in their MyKad is
recorded as ‘Islam’ simply because their names carry ‘bin’ and ‘binti’.
Data change only with approval of syariah court
It said, “The NRD confirmed that those who are affected could change the
data in their MyKad provided they had obtained clearance from the
Syariah Court.”
The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) lashed out
and warned that the NRD's decision meant that it would continue to list
such bumiputera Christians as Muslims until they have obtained an order
from a syariah court to say that they are not Muslims. This would also
be a violation of the affected persons constitutional rights and
fundamental liberties as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
The
conflict was referred to the cabinet and Prime Minister Najib Abdul
Razak wanted a quick resolution. However, the NRD continues to drag its
feet, giving an impression that the ‘MyKad Islamisation’ may, after all,
be an unwritten government policy.
How then can there be a plausible explanation that the director-general of the NRD can be so bold as to defy the PM’s directive?
So Juinah binti Paulus, 30, a Murut native from Tenom in the western
interior of Sabah, situated in Sabah’s oldest interior division, in the
beautiful valley between the Crocker and Trus Madi ranges, has no choice
but to go to the Syariah High Court, even though the court is supposed
to have jurisdiction only over Muslims. Her main hurdle is that she is
not allowed to be represented by Christian lawyers.
In her affidavit, Juinah said she is a full fledged member of Sidang
Injil Borneo (SIB) Sabah or the Borneo Evangelical Church since 2008 and
was baptised 17 years ago. She married Matius bin Mangantig, 35, who is
also a Christian of Rungus ethnicity and they have a four-year old son,
Carl Xavier.
Files of 162 native Christian go missing
The other three cases still pending were brought by a 54-year-old widow
and her two adult daughters and supported by the respective local
churches. All three are from the Dusun Banggi tribe from the tip of
Borneo. The case has been postponed a few times.
Meanwhile, files of 162 native Christians who complained that they were wrongly classified as Muslims have gone missing from the National Registration Department in Sabah.
This was highlighted by the NECF-COSA, the National Evangelical
Christian Fellowship Commission of Sabah Affairs, during its meeting
last year with Sabah’s (then) Assistant Minister of Finance, Donald
Mojuntin. The files were handed to Abdul Jafer Henry, the then state NRD
director in his office on Sept 24, 2010, by a lawyer and witnessed by
two pastors.
The MyKad Islamisation controversy and the missing 162 files from the
NRD surfaced once again two weeks ago when two senior Sabah clergymen demanded action from the NRD.
Taking
a cue from the Catholic Archbishop of Sabah Rev John Wong’s urging to
Putrajaya to act against aggressive Islamisation in the state, Rev Jerry
Dusing (left), president of the indigenous denomination Sidang
Injil Borneo Sabah, said, “As highlighted by Archbishop Wong, we urge
NRD to immediately rectify the wrong classification of Bumiputera
Christians in Sabah as Muslims just because they have ‘bin’ and ‘binti’
in their names. The JPN must desist from this ‘MyKad Islamisation’ drive
through changing the religious status in the MyKad of these
Christians.”
Dusing said the wrong classification of the MyKad belonging to native
Christians in Sabah has brought untold misery to those affected.
And so, marriages too cannot be registered
“Christians wrongly classified as Muslims are unable to get married
legally. Getting married in churches would not solve their problems as
these marriages cannot be officially registered,” he said.
“The birth of their offspring also cannot be registered as their
parent’s marriage is, in the first place, not recognised in law. This
makes them illegitimate children. This presents a major problem in
registering them in schools and in applying for their own identity
cards. Eventually, they cannot even get married as Christians.”
The NRD responded to the senior clergymen by going once again into
denial overdrive. The Sabah NRD deputy director, Adrian Allan Richard,
is quoted as saying the NRD has no jurisdiction to decide on the religion of MyKad holders.
“Having a bin or binti in the name is not the criterion for a MyKad holder to be listed as Islam in the document,” Adrian said.
Adrian also denied receiving reports of lost files, saying that they have records dating back to the 1970s, which were digitally uploaded into their system.
“We have no agenda here, we only act according to facts. If it was
indeed an administrative mistake, it will be easily cleared up by
verifying past records,” he said, also denying previous reports that
“technical glitches” prevented the correction process.
Meanwhile, Joseph Kurup (right),
a Sabahan and a minister in the Prime Minister's Department, is
scheduled to meet church leaders over several issues in Kota Kinabalu,
on Aug 29, in the run-up to the celebration of Sabah’s 51st independence
day on Aug 31.
However, Kurup is not expected to resolve the MyKad issues as the NRD is
not under his jurisdiction but under the Home Ministry, whose minister
is Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. And Zahid has not attended to this problem thus
far.
The MyKad Islamisation presents itself as a serious ethno-religious
conflict with far reaching consequences and Zahid cannot remain silent.
Neither can the prime minister.
BOB TEOH is enrolled in a Master's programme at the Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo De Manila University in the Philippines and this paper is part of his Conflict & Peace Reporting course requirements.
- Malaysiakini, 24/8/2014, Native Christians 'converted' by state policy
Stop classifying Bumi Christians as Muslims, Sabah church tells NRD
File picture shows Datuk Jerry Dusing, President of the Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa KUALA
LUMPUR, Aug 14 — A Sabah church called on the National Registration
Department (NRD) today to rectify the problem of Bumiputera Christians
with “bin” or “binti” in their names being wrongly classified as Muslims
in their MyKads.
Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Sabah president Rev Datuk Jerry Dusing said
the church lodged a complaint with NRD two years ago for 162 such cases
in Sabah, but was told that no further action could be taken because the
files were lost.
“The JPN must desist from this Islamisation drive through changing the
religious status in the MyKad of these Christians,” Dusing said in a
statement today, using the Malay acronym for the NRD.
“We also wish to call on the authorities to rein in aggressive
Islamisation in Sabah by overzealous ‘dakwah’ (evangelistic) elements
from the peninsula through conversion by dubious means such as
intimidation, inducement and deception,” he added.
Dusing said the wrong classification of Christians as Muslims in their
MyKads has prevented them from getting married legally, which in turn
prevented the registration of the birth of their children, as well as
the children’s registration in schools and applications for their own
identity cards.
“They have also been told by JPN that the department would only rectify
their religious status if they went to the Shariah Court to get a
declaration that they are not Muslims. It is most ludicrous to subject
Christians to the dictates of the Shariah Court,” he said.
Dusing stressed on Sabahans’ right to freedom of religion that Sabah
Catholic Archbishop John Wong had raised at the mamangkis gathering
organised by the Perpaduan Anak Negeri (PAN) Sabah in Papar last
Saturday.
“As we prepare to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the formation of
Malaysia on 16 September, we wish to remind the government that the
cornerstone of Sabah’s 20-point conditions to the Malaysia Agreement is
anchored on freedom of religion,” he said.
News reports surfaced last January of Borneo natives being coerced and
duped into embracing Islam, leading Christian group PAN Sabah to accuse
Muslim extremists from the peninsula of oppressing Bumiputera Christians
in the East Malaysian state.
In the so-called Project IC, which was investigated by a Royal
Commission of Inquiry (RCI) probing Sabah’s massive illegal immigrant
problem, Muslim foreigners were purportedly given citizenship in
exchange for their votes in order to keep the ruling government in
power. - Malay Mail Online, 14/8/2014, Stop classifying Bumi Christians as Muslims, Sabah church tells NRD
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