It’s 13, 50 to 53 for Sarawak

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Deputy Minister says state’s MyKad birth place code numbers merely allotted numbers, nothing sinister

KUCHING: It is common knowledge that ‘13’ is the 7th and 8th digit in the IC number of Sarawakians as their birth place (BP) code.

Most Sarawakians thus have ######-13-#### as their IC number. However, that need not be the case after 2001.

Now they have either ‘50’, ‘51’, ‘52’ or ‘53’ in their identification card (MyKad) to denote their BP if the quota for ‘13’ has been used up.

State National Registration Department told The Borneo Post that ‘13’ has been used as state code since 1992. But from 2001 onwards, ‘50’, ‘51’ and ‘52’ are also used as BP code in the ICs of Sarawakians. However, ‘53’ is not used yet.

This is to say, apart from ######-13-####, Sarawakians may also have ######-50-####, ######-51-#### or ######-52-#### as their MyKad numbers.

When contacted, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Masir Kujat explained this was done to avoid confusion with Malaysians from other states.

“Each state is given definite BP codes to indicate the birth state. For Sarawak, apart from 13, other numbers such as 50, 51, 52 and 53 are used because of the computerised system.

“For example, there is a certain quota for 13. When the quota is reached, the system would automatically use 50, which also has a certain quota. Once the quota is reached, again the computer system moves on to 52 and so on and so forth.”

He stressed that there was nothing sinister about it and it should not cause any public alarm.

The MyKad numbers follow a certain format. The first six digits are the birth date of the IC holder – starting with the year, then month and day. For example, a person born on Feb 8 in 2016 will have 160208 as the first six digits of his IC number. However, this is an unofficial feature and may not be absolute.

Following the first six numbers will be the BP code. After the BP code is the serial number consisting of four digits. A person born in Sarawak on Feb 8 in 2016 given a serial number of 1231 will have 160208-13-1231 as his IC number.

There is a peculiar feature on the serial number or the last four digits. For a male holder, the last digit will be an odd number and a female, an even number. For example, the holder of Mykad number 160208-13-1231 should be a male and 160208-13-1232 a female.
The following are BP codes for different states and federal territories in Malaysia:
Johor – 01, 21, 22, 23, 24

Kedah – 02, 25, 26, 27

Kelantan – 03, 28, 29

Malacca – 04, 30

Negeri Sembilan – 05, 31, 59

Pahang – 06, 32, 33

Penang – 07, 34, 35

Perak – 08, 36, 37, 38, 39

Perlis – 09, 40

Selangor – 10, 41, 42, 43, 44

Terengganu – 11, 45, 46

Sabah – 12, 47, 48, 49

Sarawak – 13, 50, 51, 52, 53

Federal Territory of Kulau Lumpur – 14, 54, 55, 56, 57

Federal Territory of Labuan – 15, 58

Federal Territory of Putrajaya – 16