I would like ask something to those in the National Registration Department and the PDRM.
If a human is given a card printed with 14 digits, which at first and second glances appear random, and told to keep the card just in case one day she may be asked for it, where the probability of being asked for the card is close to zero - especially if she has not much reason to have contacts with bureaucracy - would the human bother to memorize the 14 digits?
Now, let me tell you something. MOST people, CAN'T. This is because the human mind is made to memorize only 7 random numbers give or take a number. This is why most people have to put in some effort to remember their own mobile number, which they use day in and day out!
Yes, I am leading to our extra-long-extra-numbered 14 digits on our identification card, lovingly known to the average Malaysian as I.C.
I have been out of the country for the past 7 years. In that time, I hardly ever had any reason to use my IC. To the extent that I totally cannot remember whether the birth date comes first, or last. If I am required to fill up a form, I will have to hunt for my IC to look for the 14 digits on it. Heck, I don't even know my passport number, which is almost half the length!
Now, I am quite well educated, and deal with complex thinking as part of my job, but still, memorizing 14 digits that I hardly ever use, is beyond my capability. (however, I can easily spout out 16 digits of my credit card, which I use very often for internet shopping). So you see, the moral of the story is, if you don't use it, you LOSE it.
So armed with this little psychoanalysis, can you now understand why a woman who does not speak much Malay, who lives in an unnumbered squatter house cannot for the life of her parrot the 14 digit-often-unused-IC number to the Police when they came down hard on her, accusing her of being an illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka?
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Rajeshvari, who was 6 months PREGNANT when she was netted by the Brickfields police as an illegal immigrant in Oct 2007 , who experienced 2 months in Kajang prison (that would make her almost 9 month pregnant at that time), and up till last Friday, has seen the insides of Lenggeng detention camp, where she had given birth. Although she had told the police where her house was, the police were BULLHEADED in their notion that she was a SRI LANKAN. Yet, according to
Malaysiakini, Lenggeng contacted Indian High Commission to ask for her passport details. Oops. Did I just notice a discrepancy of facts by the police???
It seems that there are also children aged between 12-17 years of age who are detained for not "having their identification documents"!!!
Something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the methods and techniques used for detaining and verifying illegals.
Are the thumb print and photo on the IC simply there as decorations? What is the use of calling the IC as a "smart card" when the people who manage, maintain and verify the smart cards are as dumb as an ass?
And why did the police not take the effort to check out if each and every person they detained are genuine, purebred Malaysians? It's not like they have much else to do! Have you ever made a police report when your chain gets stolen or when your house gets broken into, or when your car dibawa lari? If you have done so, you will know that (1) making a police report is for claiming insurance, not for getting the case investigated, (2) the police will give you a cryptic smile as if he is asking you a silent question, specifically "what the hell are you doing here" and (3) the police are busy playing politics instead of playing police and thiefs.
And while the faces of the police and NRD is as pink as a baboon's arse over this incident,
Irene Fernandez's case on the defense of her report on the condition of immigrant detention centers, is fast on its way to becoming the longest court case in the history of the planet!
Can you blame people when they call Malaysia a banana republic? We have baboons hanging all over the branches of governmental and enforcement departments. So the next time you visit the NRD, or a police station, especially the Brickfields police station, please bring with you a bunch of Bananas!