The thief of time

1. Having procrastinated much too long, I finally decided to carry on with my application to correct errors in my birth register. The last time I went to the registration office last October I was given forms to fill in, including a statutory declaration form. It was not until January that I started to make a move.

2. Apart from the applicant, the statutory declaration form must include a near relative to jointly make a declaration pertaining to the matters of the application. So I made an appointment with my sister for that purpose and we met at the high court complex in Alor Setar to make the declaration and have it certified by a commissioner for oaths.39/63

3. While in Alor Setar I got all the necessary documents from my sister such as her birth certificate and a copy of her identity card and from my sister-in-law who lives in Titi Gajah, I got a copy of my brother’s death certificate.

4. Having got the necessary documents and the forms filled in and the declaration letter ready, there was a lapse of another two months before I went to the registration office to submit my application. The clerk who attended to me went through all the forms and checked all copies of the supporting documents against the originals that I showed him.

5. I was assured by the clerk that my application would normally take six months to process. After paying the application fee I left the office and walked to my car. Along the way my phone rang. It was the clerk. He informed me that I must submit a certified copy of my sister’s identity card. I told him I would submit it later.

6. My sister had refused to give me her identity card the last time I asked for it, but gave me a photocopy instead. I’d overlooked the matter of getting it certified before submitting it along with my application.

7. I immediately called my sister and it was a stroke of luck that she was in Penang that day. She promised she’d stop in Sungai Petani and hand me a certified copy of her identity card. So I had it submitted to the registration office the following day.

8. It was March then and the country was slowly affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. By mid-April government departments were closed down on account of the Movement Control Order. It meant that my application would take longer to be processed. As the saying goes: “Procrastination is the thief of time.”