Dennis (centre standing) witnessing the registration exercise.
MARUDI:Community leaders should ensure that their villagers register all births within the stipulated period.
This is to prevent problems and complications from arising when the children need to apply for MyKad and other necessary documents, Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau said.
Addressing at the opening of a 4-day 3-night registration exercise by the mobile unit of National Registration Department organised by Petronas at Long Seridan, Ulu Tutoh, he related that he had often received complaints from rural parents that they had difficulty in applying for birth certificates and MyKad for their children whose births were not registered.
The exercise was held to enable those without personal documents from the eight villages in the area to apply for their birth certificate and identity card.
Dennis said there should be no excuse for rural people not to have the personal documents now because the government through the National Registration department was doing all it could to register them. He added this could be seen by the opening up of registration offices in various remote locations such as Long Lama and the mobile units. He was happy to note that Penghulu Tebaran from Ulu Tutoh and various headmen were assisting the people with their application.
On another matter, he advised the people in Ulu Tutoh with land where the Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline passed through to cooperate with Petronas.
“While we want all our requests to be met the company, I would like you all to work closely with Petronas for long term benefits for our people. Petronas will be here among us for a long time, so we should think of long term benefits. Undertaking all costs to enable this NRD mobile unit to be here and providing their services today is one fine example of how our community could gain by supporting Petronas while they operate within our area,” he said.
He also told them to count their blessings because they could get employment from timber companies, who also built their roads and provided other assistance under their corporate social responsibility programme to them.