Giam Say Khoon
The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR (May 3, 2007): All government agencies should honour the MyKad instead of questioning its authenticity, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad.

“Mykad is a verified government card. It is not just a card that belongs to the National Registration Department (NRD),” he said.

He was commenting on theSun’s front page story on April 10 about a Muslim convert’s frustration with the Immigration and Road Transport Departments which insisted he satisfy their own verification procedure although the NRD had approved his name change reflected in his new MyKad.

Mohad Radzi told reporters after launching the MyKad application usage campaign today that the NRD registered facts that had been verified, such as changing of name and religion.

“They (the government agencies) should use and accept the information in MyKad for verification purpose, unless it is a forged card,” he said.

Asked whether MyKad details should be re-verified by other government agencies, Mohd Radzi said there was no need to repeat the procedure which the NRD had already gone through.

He advised MyKad owners to report to his ministry if a government agency refuses to accept the card for official business.

“Starting today, all agencies should accept the card as it showed the identity of that particular person and other information used by government agencies such as the police, RTD and Inland Revenue Board.

“We do not want to hear stories about other government agencies not wanting to accept MyKad,” he said.

Mohd Radzi also said although there were 410,035 Malaysians (up to April 1) who had yet to switch to MyKad, the figure was not alarming.

To speed up the processing of MyKad applications, the ministry installed a sophisticated card processing machine in the Malacca branch which can produce a card within two hours.

This compares to the 24 hours it takes for the card to be ready at the Putrajaya headquarters, and up to 10 days in some Peninsular Malaysia branches.

The six-month nationwide campaign launched today will allow people to update their MyKad with various applications like driving licence, passport and health information as well as Touch ‘n’ Go, ATM card, MEPS Cash, Public Key Infrastructure (for e-commerce use) and Frequent Travellers Card (to travel to East Malaysia and Brunei).

A MyKad exhibition is being held until Saturday (May 5) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre daily from 10am to 7pm.