I was quite appalled when I this letter by Dr Yati Hewett in the Letters section on Malaysiakini.
According to Dr Yati Hewett the JPN (National Registration Department) has taken upon itself to deny Muslim children they deemed illegitimate to bear their father’s name on the birth certificate. An internal circular issued on July 6, 2007 instructed JPN staff to look out for illegitimate Malay children and that they should leave the space for the father’s name in the birth certificate as “Information not available” instead of filling it with the father’s name. And since the father’s name is not available the children should carry the name “Abdullah” instead of their father’s name.
For a couple to register the birth of their child, as provided by the law, all they needed to do is present a Borang JPN.LM01 (known as Section 13 ) in front of a JPN official and that would be it. Unless Dr Yati is mistaken, there is no separate law governing the registration of Muslim children.
Dr Yati’s account of what has been happening at the JPN is quite appalling. Muslim children are denied their father’s name just because JPN suspects that the child was born out of wedlock, even when that is not true, and just because their parents marriage was registered outside Malaysia.
I think incidents where a government department can arbitrarily take actions that affect the lives of people, outside the requirements of the law should be highlighted. People should demand changes be made to the law, for example, recognize marriages registered outside of Malaysia and not deprive children the right to carry their father’s name whether their parents were married or not.
JPN is not the religious department, and as such they have no business prying into people’s private lives and suspecting any child as having been conceived outside of wedlock, just because their mathematical calculations told them so!
And that part about forcing children to be ‘binti Abdullah’ or ‘bin Abdullah’ just because their parents were married outside Malaysia is just wrong. These children have fathers, for goodness sakes, and their parents are married!
I agree with Dr Yati, religious zealots have no business running a civil service department!