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Saturday 10 January 2009

House Visits

After not having visited any of my PLHIV clients for more than a month, this week alone I managed to do 3 house visits. YAYYY!!

I’ve already posted the story on my visit to Lin’s place. Remember I mentioned in that posting that one of my tasks would be to look for donors to buy bicycles for Lin’s children? I posted the story on Wednesday – and by Thursday I’ve already got 2 people willing to sponsor the bicycles. By Friday one of them has already banked in the money while the other will do so soon. Thank you blog readers! I love you all!!

My next task will be to buy the bicycles – I hope to do so within next week. Will keep you all posted.

On Thursday I went to visit Zainab, whose house is quite nearby my office area. The door was wide open when I got there. Upon seeing me, Zainab immediately called out to the neighbour’s house, “Adiiik… balik! Makcik datang ni!” Her younger daughter, affectionately called Adik, was playing at the neighbour’s house, since her usual playmate, her older sister, affectionately called Kakak, was at school.

As mentioned in an earlier posting, Zainab who works at a factory, is affected by the global economy crisis as her working hours are now cut down and she gets to do much less overtime – which means she gets less income, when she actually needs more as Kakak starts schooling this year. Everything has to be bought as the girl has no older siblings or cousins to pass down old uniforms to her. I filled in the CEF (Children Education Fund) form for Kakak to lessen Zainab’s burden.

When I read the list/letter given by the school, I couldn’t help noticing in particular one sentence mentioning that they will be collecting another fee in April. They didn’t mention what fee or how much, they just mentioned it has to be paid in April. They have already collected all sorts of fee at the beginning of the year. What is this? I hear politicians talking about free education… yet this school will be collecting more fees come April. Free education my foot!!

Whatever it is, Zainab is still thankful she hasn’t lost her job. Although she had to spend quite a lot for Kakak’s schooling needs, she knows for a fact there are many people out there who are in a worse situation than hers.

Today, Saturday, I brought along 2 new volunteers to visit Fuzi and her children. Neither of the volunteers have done any house visits since they joined, so this was their first experience.

When we got to the house, I saw someone bathing naked outside the house. Woi… ni bukan x-rated posting lah. The one naked was Fuzi’s sweet looking 2 year old boy (he’ll be 3 this year) – playing at the tap right outside their back door which was by the side of the house so I could see him when I drove into the house compound. His hair has grown a bit longer now so he looks even sweeter than ever – my colleague at first thought he was a girl.

I had actually informed Fuzi earlier that I was coming today, and I told her to get ready all the necessary receipts and the results of her children’s exam results for last year, which I need in order to prepare the reports to be given to the individuals sponsoring her children under our Education Sponsorship for Children programme. I must say Fuzi was really organized this time around – everything was in order, all ready to be passed to me without me having to write down any details.

Fuzi however still has one big problem. Remember in one of my earlier postings I mentioned that her 2nd child faced no problem in getting her MyKad done because her Malaysian uncle came along when doing the necessary at the JPN office? The only problem earlier was that her first child had to resubmit her MyKad application as her earlier application was cancelled after more than a year.

Now it seems the 2nd child’s MyKad is ready, but when Fuzi resubmitted the 1st child’s application (again with the help of the uncle whom Fuzi had to pay to get him to go to JPN), JPN held back the 2nd child’s card. Now both of them are stuck and unable to get their MyKad. JPN still insists that Fuzi gets their citizenship status confirmed first at JPN Putrajaya. And the Putrajaya office on the other hand, wants Fuzi to legalize her marriage cert first at the Syariah Court.

And since her husband has died, the Syariah Court insists that Fuzi brings to court the 2 witnesses to the akad nikah in Narathiwat held more than 14 years ago. Otherwise, they wouldn’t legalize the cert. One of the witnesses is staying quite near but after consulting his family members, has refused to trouble himself to go to the Syariah Court to help Fuzi out. Not their problem, so they said. Subpoena? Can be done, but they warned Fuzi not to do that – otherwise they will make life difficult for her (as though life is not already difficult for Fuzi).

The other witness? He’s from another state near the border. This one we weren’t able to find. From the IC number written in the Narathiwat marriage cert, I can’t even be sure if this man is still alive – he’s even older than Fuzi’s late husband (who was elderly person himself!). And if he’s dead, forget the subpoena! (If he appears in court – the judge will run first!!)

So guess what? We’re back to square one!!

Oh dear…

Anyone out there has any suggestions on how to solve this matter? Anyone who knows who’s who in JPN Putrajaya? Fuzi doesn’t care anymore if her marriage cert doesn’t get legalized (her husband is dead anyway!) but she just wants her children to get their MyKad. For heaven’s sake, it is clearly stated in their birth cert that their father’s a Malaysian!!

Up till now, Fuzi has already paid quite a sum of money to people who claimed they would be able to help (despite me advising her against it). All she wanted was for her children to get their citizenship status confirmed. The money is long gone, but she is back where she started. It’s like playing snake and ladders but always sliding down the snake, never going up the ladder.

Please folks, is there any other option she can take?

12 comments:

ray said...

Komen Pak Malim kucing ray yg alim.

Masalah Fuzi sangat rumit, kata Pak Malim yg sakit tumit. Berputar-putar, kata Pak Malim yg terketar-ketar. I've send U an e-mail, it's not much, but I hope it will be helpful, kata kucing ray yg bloody fool.

Pi Bani said...

Pak Malim,
Thank you very much, kata Pi Bani sambil menekan clutch. Any kind of help is appreciated, kata Fuzi yang complicated. (eh, tapi Fuzi tak reti speaking omputih! kata Pi Bani yang dah letih)

Snakebite said...

Puan Pi

(tak leh tukaq ka nama Pi tu? bunyi mcm pee, heh heh)

Bole tak emel saya dgn detail sikit masalah fuzi ni. kot saya bole rujuk tanya org macam mana nak buat. detail tu temasuk maklumat terperinci la...nama, rujukan dan sebagai nya.

Pi Bani said...

Snakebite,
Dah memang dari kecik orang dok panggil Pi, so Pi it is lah. Kdg2 orang spell Pee, kdg2 orang spell Pea... lantak pi lah (aiseh, Pi jugak yang kena lantak).

Okay, nanti I shall email you Fuzi's story.

Unknown said...

Kalau dia tak boleh bawa 2 orang saksi untuk membuktikan perkahwinan dia, dia boleh, alternatively angkat sumpah di Mahkamah to affirm that the marriage took place.

Cuba consult a Syariah lawyer there to look into your state's Enakmen Keluarga Islam untuk peruntukkan ini.

The sumpah thingy will be a solemn ceremony that Fuzi will have to go through to make up for the lack of witnesses.

Kalau perlu, contact saya. Will try to get friends who are Syariah practitioners there to do this case.

Pi Bani said...

VersedAnggerik,
That's we were told last time, but Fuzi was not represented by a lawyer masa kena panggil di mahkamah. She tak berani approach lawyer takut mahal. Duit dia dah habis kena songlap dek orang yang konon-konon promised to 'help' her out. So bila judge suruh bawa saksi, and Fuzi asked what if dia tak dapat saksi, the garang-looking judge just told her she MUST bring the saksi to court. Kecut-perut and not knowing her facts, Fuzi didn't argue further lah.

See lah how. Sesak-sesak I will contact you.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

this method always work- get a TV crew and highlight Fuzi's plight. i tell you kak Pi, there will be drove of them VIPs thronging her kampung to assist. ala2 by-election la jugak.

Pi Bani said...

Kerp,
I will need to get Fuzi's permission to highlight her story to the electronic media. For the time being am still seeking free legal advise here and there. But worse comes to worse, we definitely will go to the media.

Pak Zawi said...

Pi,
Both snakebite and VersedAnggerik are in the legal profession. Let us hope that they will be moved help Fuzi to solve her problem if it is not too much to ask of them. From past experience of my friend, Syariah lawyers are very expensive indeed.

Pi Bani said...

Pak Zawi,
As you can see, they both responded. Am still seeking legal advise before we proceed with the next move. If possible, to get the children's MyKad done without having to legalise Fuzi's marriage cert. I was told by someone that if the children's birth cert clearly stated that their father's a Malaysian, then there shouldn't be any problem. But the JPN people handling Fuzi's case don't seem to think so.

Anonymous said...

Hi
This is Fatima (the lawyer) again. I think Fuzi needs a lawyer in her corner. You know la, fight fire with fire so that the good ol gomen boys don't push Fuzi around. I am assuming she is in Ipoh (or maybe in KL?) Wouldn she be interested in approaching the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre for assistance? The center can assign a lawyer to Fuzi and the only fee payable is a small admin/transport allowance (generally no more than RM300 and that too can be waived in special cases). Of curse Fuzi will have to qualify for the aid first but it sounds like she surely will. The contact number for the centre in Ipoh is 05-2550523. Currently its located in the Ipoh subordinate courts building. But i believe they are shifting next week. So please contact them soon and maybe get their new add if necessary. The KL Legal Aid web can be viewed at http://www.legalaidkl.org/ . You will get a better idea of how we can assist you there. Maybe a lawyer can help you through this. It frustrates me that our gomen uncles choose to roadblock people like Fuzi. If you are unable to get help soon please contact me. I am based in Melaka but will see what I can do. Good luck to you.

Pi Bani said...

Thank you Fatima. I may do just that.