NRD corrects ‘Islam’ status on Christian woman’s MyPR card — with the exact same mistake

“PUTRAJAYA, May 29 — An Indonesian Christian woman today came to the National Registration Department (NRD) headquarters in Putrajaya with the hope of receiving a new permanent resident identification card (MyPR) that would correctly reflect her religious status as a non-Muslim. The 68-year-old woman, who prefers to be known as Yanti* and is the widow of a Malaysian man, was previously given a MyPR card with the word “Islam” printed. But Yanti was left disappointed after coming all the way from Johor by car today, as the NRD issued her a new MyPR card with the exact same error as her old MyPR card. Lawyer Annou Xavier told reporters that his client Yanti was born in Indonesia in 1958 to Christian parents: “And all along she has always practised the Christian faith and the Christian religion.” Annou said Yanti came to Malaysia by boat in 1977, and that she was rescued by people from a nearby Felda settlement after her boat met with an accident. Annou said she later married a Malaysian Christian man named Sunny* through a Chinese customary marriage that same year: “That marriage has been recognised as a legitimate marriage.” Annou explained that the couple’s traditional Chinese marriage was recognised legally in Malaysia as it took place before the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 came into force, and confirmed that the couple’s four children’s status as Malaysian citizens at birth also showed that their marriage was legitimate. The 1976 law, which only came into force in 1982, requires non-Muslim couples in Malaysia to register their marriages. Yanti had in the 1980s applied for permanent residency in Malaysia, and was given a MyPR card with the word “Islam” written on it and with the word “binti” added to her name. When met here outside the NRD’s headquarters, Yanti confirmed to reporters that her original name in Indonesia did not carry the word “binti”. “So she’s never been a Muslim in Indonesia, she’s never been a Muslim in Malaysia, she married Sunny who’s a Christian, she’s got four children... they are Christian. She has never in any way practised Islamic faith,” Annou said. But after her Malaysian husband passed away in July 2024, Yanti was unable to claim his pension from the Public Service Department (JPA), with Annou saying: “It was rejected because they had classified her as ‘Islam’.” Yanti still has the pension card which carries both her name and her husband’s name, and which she received well before her husband’s death. Her husband Sunny had worked at the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda). Lawyer Annou Xavier said his client Yanti was never a Muslim and has always been a Christian, but that a new MyPR card with the same erroneous record of "Islam" as her religious status had been issued to her today. - Picture by Sayuti Zainudin Annou said Yanti then asked lawyers for help to write a letter to NRD to ask for the religious status on her MyPR card to be changed from “Islam” to reflect her actual status as a non-Muslim. Annou said Yanti had applied this past February for the religious status on her MyPR card to be corrected, and that she recently received a notification in an NRD app informing her that her MyPR card could be collected. The app notification said the status of her application was “Sedia diambil” (Ready to be collected). “So we came today with that notification, just to be informed that she was also given that exact same IC with the word ‘pemastautin tetap’ (permanent resident) and with the word ‘Islam’. “I think essentially the application has been rejected, this is what I gathered, the application to change the status of ‘Islam’ to ‘non-Islam’ has been rejected,” Annou said, adding that the new MyPR card was handed over to his client by an NRD officer without any explanation. Saying that Yanti was “disappointed”, Annou said he would seek her instructions on the next steps that she wishes to take, including whether she wants to file a court case. *Yanti’s and Sunny’s full names have been withheld for privacy reasons.

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