DUNGUN, March 16 — The National Registration Department (JPN) received 59,037 applications to replace identification cards this year.
Its director-general Badrul Hisham Alias said the replacements were due of losses from negligence, crime, and natural disasters, with negligence ranking the highest at 55,504 applications, followed by disaster (2,575 applications), and crime (958 applications).
"Negligence is when, for instance, they passed their identification cards to security guards to enter certain premises but forgot to take them back when they leave… Selangor has the highest number of such applications at 8,482, followed by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (7,427 applications), and Johor (7,247 applications).
"This sort of thing should not happen as identification cards are the most important documents that need to be kept well,” he said after presenting six new identification cards today to residents of Kampung Pasir Raja and Kampung Shukor, who lost their cards during floods in February.
He Badrul added the department will continue their Mekar Disaspora programme in the United States in June and provide registration services and advice to Malaysians abroad.
"We choose the location of the programme based on the number of Malaysians there as many of them are abroad and require our services, but to return home and deal with such matters requires high costs.
"So what the Madani government does is to go to Malaysians and help them, like the programme in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in January,” he added.
— Bernama
