Malaysian or not?

What happens when a Malaysian man marries an Indonesian woman in Narathiwat, Thailand? Well, if this was some kind of a dish, I’d call it MALINDO TOMYAM! And with too many ingredients, including lots of hot and spicy stuff, this dish can cause major stomach upset...

This story is about Fuzi. I’ve already highlighted Fuzi’s financial problems in my earlier postings. Her never-ending welfare woes continue… her measly RM115 monthly financial aid from the welfare department is still inconsistent. Thank goodness my earlier posting in this blog has resulted in one of my blog readers contributing a fixed amount monthly into Fuzi’s bank account. At least she has something to rely on to survive, especially when the welfare help comes in late.

This time I am not going to touch on the welfare problems again. It will only “make my blood go upstairs”!

Fuzi is an Indonesian woman who married an elderly Malaysian man about 13 years ago. It was this man’s second marriage after his wife died a few years back. I am not sure why he decided to get married in Thailand though. Maybe his children didn’t agree to his second marriage… or maybe there were other problems, I don’t really know.

He should have registered his marriage in Malaysia, but he did not. Whenever Fuzi asked, he just said everything had been done. Fuzi herself didn’t really know what the procedures were so she never asked further. There were no problems when Fuzi gave birth to her first 4 children. In their birth certs, their citizenship was clearly indicated as Malaysian, so Fuzi didn’t foresee any problems.

When Fuzi’s husband died a few years ago, Fuzi immediately became a single non-working mother. She has not got her PR status yet. Since her children are Malaysians, she was determined to stay on in Malaysia even if she needed to renew her visa on a yearly basis. She had her late husband’s house to stay in, even though the door may not be too secure (it didn’t have proper lock), at least Fuzi and her children still have a place they can call home.

To cut a long story short, one night somebody broke into their home and Fuzi got raped. As a result, Fuzi got pregnant, and during the tests done, she was also found to be HIV positive.

When her 5th child, Iwan, was born, without a father, in the birth cert, under the father’s info it was written as “Maklumat bapa: Tidak diketahui”. And with the mother’s citizenship being Indonesian, Iwan was considered as a non-citizen. His siblings are all Malaysians, while he is not. That’s not so bad I guess. What I can’t imagine is how he will be going to school with a birth cert which says father’s info not known – especially if the birth cert falls into the hands of a judgmental person. Oh poor Iwan!

Well, if Fuzi thought Iwan was her only worry, she was wrong. Her eldest daughter Wina turned 12 recently and off they went to JPN to get her MyKad done. Since the girl's father is no longer around and the mother is an Indonesian, JPN needed further supporting documents other than Wina’s birth cert to confirm that she’s really a Malaysian citizen. Fuzi produced her Narathiwat-issued marriage cert which is not recognized here unless and until the marriage is properly registered in Malaysia. Apparently it was not. Fuzi’s late husband never registered the marriage. So here goes…

Now Fuzi needs to go through all sorts of hassle. First, she needs to “legalize” the marriage with her late husband. That's not an easy task when the husband is no longer around. Amongst others, she needs to find the 2 witnesses to her marriage in Narathiwat. She knows where one of them stays but doesn’t know where the other one is. Now she needs to get the full name of the other witness (full names of witnesses not even written on the marriage cert, just their signatures, would you believe it?), and then get JPN’s help to find the latest address.

Other than that she also needs to prove that the marriage cert she has is not fake. The onus of proving it is on her. It was suggested that she goes to the Thailand embassy to get that done. After that she needs to go to Majlis Agama Islam, together with the names and addresses of the 2 witnesses. Once that is done and the Majlis Agama Islam is satisfied, only then will they issue a letter which Fuzi will have to bring to JPN.

I’m not sure how long the process will take. Along the way, Fuzi will need to incur lots of expenses, not only for her trips here and there, but she will also need to pay for attestations, penalties and whatever other fines for not having her marriage registered earlier (which should have been done by her late husband long ago!).

If Fuzi fails to do all that, Wina and the other children will not be getting their MyKad despite their birth cert indicating they are Malaysians. And if they don’t get their MyKad, they may face other problems in the future.

And all the while Fuzi thought Iwan was her only problem…