Register newborn babies within 42 days from date of birth, parents reminded

TELANG USAN: Parents are reminded to register their newborn babies within the 42day grace period from the date of birth at the nearest National Registration Department ( NRD) offices to avoid problems when applying for the children’s identity cards ( ICs) later on.

Failure to register a newborn baby within the stipulated grace period is among the reasons some members of the rural communities in Ulu Baram, especially the Penans, are still without proper personal documents like birth certificates and MyKad.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau stressed this point when speaking during a registration drive for members of the rural community, conducted by NRD Miri special mobile unit at Ba Pakan Sungai Akah here recently.

“Without proper identification documents, parents and their children will face problems when registering them for school,” he pointed out.

On a related matter, Dennis reminded the young Penans to ensure that they must have ICs before tying the knot because if not, their children would be labelled as non- citizens on their birth certificates, even if they were born in the country.

“I know there are some among you who do not care about the importance of having an IC because all these years, you may not really need it in your daily lives compared with those in the urban areas.

“But you cannot avoid modernisation coming into the rural areas, where having personal documents is a must,” said Dennis, adding that the documents would give their children access to government assistance if they strove for a better life.

Thus, the assemblyman urged the rural community to take advantage of the NRD mobile drive to apply for these documents as he was not certain how long the programme would go on.

During the exercise in Ba Pakan, the mobile unit team led by led by NRD Miri head Affrizan Bujang received and processed over 30 applications for late registration of births and other personal documents among the rural folk – the majority of whom are Penans.

Yen (standing left) and Alexander (front) at the Sri Aman playground to check on the facilities, some of which are damaged, according to them.

Dennis (second right) talks to an NRD officer during the registration drive in Ba Pakan. Standing at left is local community leader Penghulu Ajeng Kiew.