MY colleague became a joyful father recently. He and his wife were blessed with a lovely baby boy on March 30.
He was discharged after a short stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Right after the baby’s discharge, the hospital provided the parents with the National Registration Department (NRD) form.
My colleague dutifully filled the details and was told by NRD that there are no walk-in registrations and he must make an appointment via MyJanjiTemu to get the child’s birth certificate, which he submitted online on April 6.
To the surprise of the parents, there were no available slots right up to June. They had no other choice but to book a slot on June 22. During the online registration, it was also found that there were fewer than 15 slots available in a day, with around half an hour allocated for each slot.
Statistics from 2019 show the average birth rate of our country is 1,337 babies per day. If there are 1,337 births a day, would 15 slots be adequate? We can only issue 15 birth certificates a day? How long will the rest of the 1,322 babies have to wait?
The government announced earlier this month that civil servants will completely return to their offices and service counters are to be fully opened as well. That means there should be a fully functional staff managing the issuance of the birth certificates. How come these staff are unable to accommodate the current demand and only settling for 15 birth certificates a day?
Not wanting to rely on the online application, my colleague and his wife after many failed attempts to contact NRD, managed to speak to an officer, who verified that no walk-in appointments are allowed and they have to wait until June, as per the appointment he made online.
Now comes the challenge, since the slot to register the child’s birth is only in June, the poor parents are unable to register the child for his medical insurance claims, which requires details of the child’s MyKid and birth certificate.
Therefore, my colleague must resort to paying for his medical bills on his own, despite having insurance that could cover the delivery and hospital charges.
While I understand that we are all operating under the current pandemic and this is certainly a challenging period, with the advent of online applications, online issuance of driving licences, passports, and several other vital documents, what does it take for our NRD to work against these Covid-19 challenges and reduce the burden of parents who are suffering with the tightened mobility, limited access, and health impediments?
I certainly feel that issuing 15 or 31 – as I was told as of May 6 – is not on a par with all the advancement that Malaysia has made in the last 30 years. Our progress cannot allow the government machinery to issue 15 or 30 birth certificates a day, when our birth rate is 44 times higher than that.
Many Malaysians are affected, some without a job. For those who are on the job, if the birth certificate is delayed, the parents must fork out the money to settle hospital bills and all other costs associated with the delivery, even though they have medical insurance benefits through their employers.
I sincerely hope NRD will institute adequate staff and measures to ensure no birth certificate is delayed by more than a week. The hospitals, too, should help in issuing the birth certificates. If the birth certificates cannot be issued on time, then a temporary certificate must be issued to the parents to expedite their insurance claims.
Let us make the process simple and easy so that we can become an efficient nation. We should not even be talking about these kinds of delays and discomfort caused by a poor civil service. Let us hope we will improve and make it better for all. – The Vibes, May 11, 2021
Ravindran Raman Kutty is a communications and reputation management expert who has worked in multinational and government-linked companies, as well as government agencies
