He said the late birth registration exercise by Sabah’s mobile court is as stringent as the regular courts, whereby an inquiry will be held to determine the person had truly been born in the state.
“The people must understand this. It is not a citizenship registration exercise.
“We will have an inquiry and the magistrate will have to ask the applicant why he claims to be a Sabahan.
“At least two persons will be called in as witnesses, one of them being the village chief and the other a person who truly knows the late birth registrant,” he told reporters after launching the Sabah mobile court service programme for the urban areas in Kampung Babah, Penampang, today.
Wong said these two witnesses will have to authenticate the registrant’s claim of being a true Sabah-born.
Also present with Wong was the Kota Kinabalu High Court Chief Judge-cum-mobile court service adviser Martin Idang, Sabah Assistant Native and Law Affairs Minister Jannie Lasimbang and Sabah Assistant Education and Innovation Minister Jenifer Lasimbang.
Wong said aside from hearing the testimonies of the witnesses, the magistrate will also take note of the registrant’s personality, such as the accent and other criteria.
‘Great misunderstanding’
Meanwhile, Kota Kinabalu Chief Judge Martin Idang dismissed the allegations as baseless and that it is a “great misunderstanding” on the court’s role in endorsing late birth registration.
“We only go through genuine documents. Only those who are truly Sabah-born will be given birth certificates.
“There are many cases we have rejected and there are also many who are appealing on this.
“No migrants were given birth certificates via the mobile courts, ” he said.
On a related matter, Wong said that while most of the late birth registration cases are in the Sabah interior divisions, such cases can also be found in the urban areas.
“Most of the rural folks were not able to register the birth of their child due to the long and costly travel to get to the nearest National Registration Department (JPN) offices.”
He noted some of these folks had migrated to the urban areas for work despite having no papers on them. As a result, they can only hold menial jobs.
Resolving legal matters in the urban areas is the second phase of the mobile court programme, he said.
At the end of last year, the Sabah mobile courts had sorted out 8,345 cases related to birth certification since starting operations 10 years ago.
Wong pointed out that many Sabahans are still unaware that the law requires them to register their newborns within 42 days after birth.
“If they don’t, they have to get the court endorsement for late birth registration.
“Only after the court has endorsed their birth registration documents can they bring them to the JPN and only JPN can decide whether to grant them the MyKad or not,” he said.