BY AFIX REDZUAN
SHAH ALAM, OCT 13: The government was urged to investigate the main reason for birth registration delays in this country, instead of simply announcing an immediate increase of fine from RM50 to RM1,000, to curb the issue.
Batu Tiga Assemblyman, Rodziah Ismail questioned the rationale of that action and said that would surely cause dissatisfaction among citizens who are already burdened with the high cost of living.
“It seems that Umno BN’s action is merely to make profit by increasing the fine from just RM50 to RM1,000.
“The government should identify the reasons and issues causing so many delays rather than act greedily and extort citizens who are already burdened with various taxes including GST.
“Such action will only cause dissatisfaction among citizens as the increase is unreasonable,” she said.
She added that the National Registration Department (JPN) who is in-charge of this should at least provide a pamphlet and even a special counter to ask those who fail to register to come forward and settle the issue amicably.
She said, a brief explanation and immediate action must be taken as failing to register will eventually affect the future of the family and the child’s education.
“One of the reason could possibly be that the child was born out of wedlock and the parents are ashamed to register, believing birth certificate to be unimportant, furthermore they could be married to foreigners.
“These kinds of reasons must be looked into to ensure these children have birth certificates, as without having the document, they will face various complications later,” she said.
