The appointment

1. Last two years my niece wrote a letter to Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (Tun Mahathir) in the hope of making an appointment with him. She mentioned in the letter that she was the granddaughter of Mohamad Ismail Merican and that her mother wished to meet with Tun Mahathir in order to consult him about a private matter. (Read my post “A matter of great concern.”) My niece further mentioned that her uncle, Mohd Sharif Marikan, would also be coming along with them to the meeting.

2. In a matter of several days after delivering the letter, an appointment was fixed on 6 May, 2016 at Tun Mahathir’s office at the Albukhary Foundation Headquarters Building in Kuala Lumpur. We left for Kuala Lumpur in the early morning to keep the appointment.

3. I felt very pleased and honoured to have the opportunity of meeting Tun Mahathir in person. We were greeted warmly by the most eminent person in the country. The first thing that impressed me was his smile and humility which concealed his status as a renowned statesman.

4. Then we gathered at his table and got down to business. My sister explained that there had occurred an inaccuracy in her identity record in the National Registration Department system. She expressed hope that Tun Mahathir would consider her request for a written testimony regarding her true identity. Being modest, he casually mentioned that he was afraid if it would be of any use to her.

5. As proof of her identity as well as mine, we showed Tun Mahathir available evidence which included photocopies of vital documents such as birth certificates, a photo of my father with his adopted family, and paper cuttings from the Straits Echo. He scrutinised all the evidence that we showed him one by one. He even scanned through a brief tribute to our father published in the aforementioned paper.

6. It seemed that Tun Mahathir had no knowledge of our parent’s marriage and that they had children from the marriage. However, I was so impressed and glad that he still remembered my father. He told us that our father had an adopted son by the name of Hamid whom he seemed to know. He also told us that he used to pass by our father’s house along Jalan Langgar on his way to school, the Sultan Abdul Hamid College. He remembered that the house once stood somewhere within the vicinity of what is now an old bus station.

7. Tun Mahathir seemed satisfied with the evidence that we showed him. He asked me how old I was and I told him I was 69. He seemed very convinced that my sister and I were children of Mohamad Ismail Merican.

8. After a while he duly picked up a pencil and looking closely at one of the photocopies, he started to copy information thereon on a piece of paper. Just as he began writing, I said to him that the photocopies were for him and hence he stopped.

9. Then I said that we would not take much more of his time and thanked him for the time he spent with us. We all stood up and then had a picture taken with Tun Mahathir.

10. As we shook hands, I asked to hug him and we embraced each other in silence.  Before leaving, I expressed our hope that he would always be in good health and continue his good work for the good the country.

11. Incidentally, at that time Tun Mahathir was under attack by his political adversaries because of his critical views of the ruling government. The bad-mouthing included calling him a senile old man which was utterly false. At the time we met him, Tun Mahathir was already 91 but I noticed that his mind was clear and sharp. He was remarkably spry, healthy for his age.

12. By the way, my sister received a written testimony from Tun Mahathir in less than two weeks after the meeting. The testimony signifies my sister’s true identity. It is a very significant piece of evidence indeed. My sister submitted the testimony with the other documents to the NRD in support of her request for rectification of inaccuracy which had occurred in her identity record.

13. Aside from the other documents, I believed that the testimony did matter in affecting the decision arrived at by the NRD in Putrajaya in favour of my sister’s request. I noticed that the testimony was dated 10 May – the date that Tun Mahathir was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia two years later. What a strange coincidence!

Note: Tun Mahathir’s father, Mohamad Iskandar, and my father, Mohamad Ismail Merican, were teachers at the Penang Free School in the early 1900s. Mohamad Iskandar became the first headmaster of a newly founded English school in Alor Star, the Government English School, but only for a brief spell.  Later, my father came over from Penang to become the third headmaster of the school in February 1911 and later joined the Kedah Civil Service (KCS).

A matter of great concern

1. Some government departments can make things difficult for ordinary people. Once, my sister, 68, got caught in a difficult situation over the issue of inaccuracy in her identity record.

2. It happened in the early months of 2016 when my sister, accompanied by her daughter, went to the National Registration Department (NRD) in Alor Setar to search for the death certificate of our father, Mohamad Ismail Merican. Their purpose was to trace the latter’s family tree because someone told my niece that it was possible to trace family trees from the (computerized database) system.   

3. Unfortunately, the clerk at the counter was unable to help because there was no information whatsoever about our father in the system. (My father died in 1956 while the system only began in late 70s or early 80s.)

4. Furthermore, the clerk explained that the system revealed my sister’s binti* as “Ismail Khan” instead of “Che Ismail Merican.” My sister was appalled when she learned about the inaccuracy of her binti. Her binti in the birth certificate was clearly registered as “Che Ismail Merican.”

5. Upon further inquiries the clerk told them that the “change” had occurred sometime in March 2014 at the request of someone whose identity could not be disclosed by the NRD.

It seemed that the system revealed three searches for my sister’s record, unusually not through the proper procedure of filling in an application form. The “change” was made at the NRD in Alor Setar.

6. My sister was curious to learn that her binti had been changed because she did not apply for such change to be made. After all, there was no reason whatever for her to do that. The situation was a matter of great concern to my sister and my niece. They were determined to get her “changed” binti rectified.

7. Thus, began a tedious task of solving the problem. My sister along with her daughter had a long tug-of-war with the NRD. On the one hand, the NRD was steadfast in maintaining the status quo – that is, according to them my sister’s record in the system was authentic. On the other hand, my sister was persistent and requested that her name in the system be rectified according to that registered in her birth certificate.

8. She was caught off-guard when the clerk pointed out that her birth certificate, which was a duplicate of the original copy, would not suffice as evidence. Ridiculously, the clerk insisted on the original which was lost a long time ago.

9. Later, my sister got a rough deal when she was told to refer her case to the NRD in Putrajaya^‡ where, ironically, she had been advised otherwise. The people in Putrajaya told her that the proper place to find a solution to her problem would be the NRD in Alor Setar where it all started. So it was back to square one.

10. My sister seemed to be fighting a losing battle. There were no surviving elders who could testify for her regarding her true identity let alone our father’s contemporaries.

11. By the month of May, it seemed like a dead end for my sister. Then my niece came up with a far-fetched idea of meeting one elderly and illustrious person who might know her grandfather. She wrote a letter asking for an appointment to meet with him. Much to our surprise, an appointment for the meeting came in within days after my niece delivered her letter.

12. We kept the appointment and were greeted warmly by the most eminent person in the country. The first thing that impressed me was his smile and humility which concealed his status as a renowned statesman.

13. We gathered at his table and my sister started the ball rolling by explaining the purpose of our visit. He seemed satisfied with the evidence that we showed him which included birth certificates, newspaper cuttings and photos – as proof of our identity. Within a couple of weeks after the meeting on May 6, my sister received a written testimony from the elderly statesman who stated that he was convinced and of the opinion that Ismail Khan was in fact Che Ismail Merican. (I will write about the meeting in my next posting.)

14. The testimony was very significant indeed. However, without essential documents such as our father’s death certificate, my sister’s application for the correction of her binti could not be processed. Unfortunately, searches for our father’s death certificate were futile previously, because we did not know the exact date of his death. The result of such search had always been: “No Record.”

15. It was not until the month of October that a long day spent at the library worked in our favour. By a pure stroke of luck, my wife found a newspaper story about my father’s death which gave us the exact date of his death. (Read my post Eureka!)

16. With that information, my sister finally succeeded in obtaining an extract of our father’s death certificate. She submitted all the relevant evidence to the NRD in Putrajaya in support of her application which was duly reconsidered for processing.  

17. As long last, there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel. However, it was not until a year later that her application was approved by the NRD in Putrajaya. Thus, she got her binti – Che Ismail Merican – back.

18. What actually went wrong? The whole matter seemed to point to a conflict of interest. It’s quite annoying to learn that the duplicate of the original copy of my sister’s birth certificate does not suffice as proof of her identity, in spite of the fact that it was issued by the NRD.

19. It seemed clear that some unknown person had meddled with my sister’s identity record since she has never applied for any change to be made. In any case the culprit got away scot-free as disclosing his/her identity is a legal matter. An ordinary person like my sister wouldn’t dream of taking legal action against the culprit because she would not be able to bear the cost.

20. Telling her to refer her case to the NRD in Putrajaya was not a fair decision by the Alor Setar NRD since the problem occurred in Alor Setar. It seemed to suggest that there was a conflict of interest. My niece has her own thoughts about the whole matter. She believes that it is a deliberate attempt to falsify her mother’s identity whatever the motives may be.

National Registration Department = register office

*binti = daughter of (binti precedes the father’s name, e.g. Fatimah binti Ahmad)

^‡Driving distance from Putrajaya to Alor Setar is 471 kilometers (292 miles).