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The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry announced on July 21st about starting a Birth Certificate Registration Programme, but it seems that the program have been running for some time.

Unlike previous efforts which started with few events and then faded away, we hope this programme is able to persevere.

The NST report highlighted a case which was bought to the programme:

When she was born in a hospital in Klang, T. Gomarthy was issued a birth certificate which registered her as a boy. The mistake only came to light 12 years later when she went to the Shah Alam National Registration Department to apply for her identity card.

That marked the beginning of her problems. The NRD officer required the presence of her mother to rectify the mistake.

But Gomarthy’s mother had left the family when she was 11 and could not be contacted.

She spent the next six years pleading her case with the NRD without success.

Help eventually came from the “Birth Certificate Registration Programme” organised by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

With the assistance of one of the co-organisers of the Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS), Gomarthy, now 18, obtained a new birth certificate last week and applied for her IC.

“Because of this problem, I had to stop schooling in Form Three. If only it was settled years ago.”

YSS assistant director V. Vanita Ramany criticised the NRD for the delay in correcting the mistake in Gomarthy’s birth certificate.

“Why did they ask her to bring her mother who went missing years ago when her biological father was with her?”

Vanita said about 200 stateless people attended the programme held in Setapak, of which 87 were those without birth certificates, while the rest held red identity cards or had no identification papers.

A similar programme would be carried out in Raub, Pahang next month.

She said a child born in an unregistered marriage might not get a birth certificate as some NRD officers would register a child in the absence of the parents’ marriage certificate while others would not.

She cited a case where seven brothers and sisters, aged 4 months to 10 years, did not have birth certificates because their parents did not register their marriage as it was the woman’s second marriage.

Then there are married women without birth certificates.

In such cases, even if their children were to get their birth certificates, they would remain non-citizens, Vanita said.

She called for the appointment of more Tamil-speaking officers at NRD offices to help Indians who only spoke their mother tongue.

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The hottest news among the concerned Indians surely have to be the news that Indian equity DROPPED to 1.1% from previous 1.2%. This is a big blow to MIC, and if used properly, will spell the end of Samy Vellu and MIC. For all they claimed on stages and advertised in papers, what we ended up with is a drop in equity. When everyone else registered positive growth, ours went the opposite way. Even though the value of investment increased (by/to?) RM575.2million or 9% within the period 2004-2006.
Unless there is proof that from 2006 to 2007, some sort mini miracle happened to improve the percentage…it will be a body blow for MIC.

Yeah, equity may not be all, but as it is an indicator fondly used by other races, so I guess its fair that we too treat it as an important indicator.

The non-privileged, normal Malaysians share increased from 40.6 percent in 2004 to 43.9
percent in 2006, meaning the Chinese community’s hold increased 3.3%, far more than the privileged and Indians communities.

For non-bumiputeras, it increased from 40.6% in 2004 to 43.9% in 2006. Chinese ownership group saw an increase from 39.6% to 42.4%, while for Indians it showed a slight decline from 1.2% to 1.1%.

However, there was a decline in foreign ownership from 32.5% to 30.1% while for nominees, it fell from 8.0% to 6.6%.

Also, the contentious “privileged’ people equity is being put at 19.4% whereas alternative figures quote more than 45% (google for ASLI’s report on bumiputra equity), increasing from 18.9% in 2004. ?During the period, individual ownership increased from 15.0% to 15.1% while for institutions, including Permodalan Nasional Bhd, it increased from 2.2% to 2.6%. The government’s target under the 9MP is to attain bumiputera equity ownership between 20% and 25% by 2010, which excludes government companies like Petroliam Nasional Bhd and Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The equity ownership is based on the par value of the shares and not on market capitalization.

The irony is privileged people’s equity increased 0.5% and below are among the measures to reach the target of 20 to 25% being introduced by PM:
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Its a bad statistic indeed if only 10 out of 300 students (3.3%) applied for the loan scheme. What could be the reasons?

- not interested?

- don’t know how/where/when/why?

- loan rules too strict/rigid?

MIC can’t be faulted here unless they did not provide awareness or proper information to the students.

RM3 million / 300 students is averaging  RM10000 per graduate, which is quite a substantial amount to start small business like food stall or similar business that require less capital and investment in machineries/tools.

Only 10 of the 300 Indian students who graduated from the Giat Mara centres and National Entrepreneurship Institute (Insken) last year have applied for business loans under the Young Indian Entrepreneurs Loan Scheme run by Tekun Foundation, says MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.
He urged the remaining 290 students to apply for the loan from Tekun or the National Foundation for Economic Fund Group under the Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Ministry.

“Yayasan Tekun has allocated RM3 million to be disbursed as business loans for graduates of Pusat Giat Mara and Insken,” he said in a statement today.

He said the Tekun Foundation decided to issue business loans to Indian students from Giat Mara centres and Insken following discussions between the foundation and the Social Strategic Foundation (YSS), MICs social arm, last year.

Samy Vellu said although the Tekun Foundation was meant for Bumiputera entrepreneurs, its management decided to open its business loans for Indians through the help of the then Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
He said qualified Indians engaged in small-and medium-scale businesses can apply for the loan to start or to sustain and expand their businesses, ranging from small cottage to modern technological industries, food, agriculture, manufacturing and handicraft for domestic and foreign markets.

Enterprising young Indian entrepreneurs can contact YSS at Level 5, Menara Manickavasagam, at No 1, Jalan Rahmat, 50350 Kuala Lumpur, telephone (03) 4041-5958 or Fax (03) 4041-5681.

source

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