Teen suffers as he has to live without an identification card

KUBANG PASU - A young boy of Siamese descent from Kampung Lubok Sengkuang, Changlun here had to go through the agony of living without an identity card and was only able to attend school until the sixth year.

Khathanak Sayan, 19, said that because of this complication, he did not have the opportunity to get a better job like his other friends.

He said that after finishing primary school at Yit Min National Chinese School (SJKC) in Changlun, he only did village work and helped his father tap rubber.

"I also feel sad when I see my friends can work outside (far from the village), but I can't.

"No matter where I go, I just bring my birth certificate, I don't have a blue IC (identification card) like my younger siblings," he said when met at his home here on Tuesday.

His father, Sayan a/l Prak Sat said, admitted that the problem was caused by their mistake when they were newly married when they were late in registering the marriage.

"My wife, Sawitree Darasawang, 38, who is a Thai citizen, and I got married in 2003 in this village according to Buddhist beliefs.

"But due to our ignorance and some other problems, we only registered the marriage at the National Registration Department (JPN) in 2006," he said, who has three children.

According to him, during that period, Khathanak, their eldest son, was born in 2004 at Jitra Hospital.

"But because we were slow to register the marriage, his birth certificate says 'Not a citizen' and to this day Khathanak does not have an identity card,” he said.

Sayan said that his two other children, namely Thawiwat and Suphanit, who were born in 2009 and 2018, had no problem obtaining citizenship status because his marriage with Sawitree had already been registered at that time.

"I have tried various ways until I was deceived by people who supposedly wanted to help me, but there was no result and even the money I paid just disappeared," he said.

Sayan added that he had previously applied twice but the first application was rejected in 2013 without reason.

"The second application was made in 2018 but so far we have not received an answer," he said.

According to Sayan, as a father, he is very worried about the fate of his eldest son, not to mention if Khathanak wants to start a family.

"When he was a child he always told me his dreams. I was sad because I knew without an ID card he couldn't achieve anything he wanted.

"While working now, his salary is not much, he cannot even register for an Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) ," he said.