51 Pulau Sebatik residents get their birth certs

TAWAU: Fifty-one Pulau Sebatik residents, who have no identification documents due to late birth registration, can now breathe a sigh of relief when the National Registration Department (NRD) presented them with their birth certificates today.
The certificates were presented to them by Sabah NRD director Datuk Ismail Ahmad and Sebatik assemblyman Datuk Abdul Muis Pichu in a ceremony held at Kampung Sungai Tongkang Community Service Centre in Pulau Sebatik near here.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Ismail said that 51 individuals, aged between 12 and 17 years, had succeeded in the interview for issuance of birth certificates, which was held at the NRD Office, Urban Transformation Centre in Tawau last Tuesday.
"The parents of the 51 individuals were also summoned and interviewed," he said, adding that the Sebatik assemblyman's concern over the urgent need to solve the problem of the absence of birth certificates among the people there was finally resolved today.
The assemblyman had recently said his concern to solve the issue of birth certificates and MyKad of some residents in Sebatik was not aimed at garnering support for the general election, but he was merely discharging his responsibility as the people's elected representative. — Bernama