Perak Getting Ready for Mydaftar Campaign

Tuan Hj Alias Mamat chairing the meeting together with Dato Veerasingam and Dato Siva Subramaniam

Perak took the lead in hosting the first state level meeting in preparation for the nationwide campaign to document all the undocumented Malaysian Indians especially those who do not have birth certificates or identification cards or who still posses a red IC

The Registration Department Director for Perak, Tuan Haji Alias Mamat chaired the meeting which was held on Jan 13, 2011 at the Perak State Secretariat Building at Ipoh. About twenty six people attended including representatives from the Department, MIC leaders, local NGO and community leaders from the Hindu Sangam and Malaysian Tamil Youth Bell club.

Also present was Dato Veerasingam, Advisor to the Chief Minister of Perak and Taskforce consultant and campaign coordinator Dato Siva Subramaniam.

The meeting established some specific targets for Perak especially in terms of setting the key dates

• Between Jan 13 to 24, 2011     – To  nominate coordinator & volunteers
•  On Jan 25 at 3pm to 6pm         – Conduct volunteers briefing
•  Between Jan 26 to Feb 18        - To identify undocumented cases
• On Feb 19, 2011                     – To launch State level campaign
• Feb 19 to 26                           – Active participation during the Kempen MyDaftar

The state director assured the meeting that all the fifteen district level Registration Department office will be open during the campaign period including Feb 19 (Sat) & 20 (Sun), 2011

According to Dato Siva “this was indeed a fruitful meeting and there is a real firm commitment on the part of the Federal government to find a solution to this problem”.

The real challenge however is for the community is to identify and ensure that every Indian case registers with the department during the campaign period. This is not the time to be complacent but with a sense of urgency we must go to every section of our land and bring the people with a documentation and citizenship problem to the open.