National Identification Card System and Bumiputra
To identify citizens that qualify for the status of Bumiputra, Malaysia requires citizens to carry a national identification card called MyKad. Smart Cards identify citizens by race and religion. Any Western Malaysian citizen apparently can opt into the system simply by proclaiming him/herself to being Muslim.
Under Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia a Malay is defined as being:
- a Malaysian citizen born to a Malaysian citizen who professes to be a Muslim - habitually speaks the Malay language - adheres to Malay customs - and is domiciled in Malaysia or Singapore
However, opting out of the system is a different matter as demonstrated by Lina Joy's six year court battle. Joy's request to change the religion listed on her MyKad was denied by Malaysia's Supreme Court in 2007.
"Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert. "
Read more about this topic: Bumiputera (Malaysia)
Famous quotes containing the words national, card and/or system:
“Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Mothers are not the nameless, faceless stereotypes who appear once a year on a greeting card with their virtues set to prose, but women who have been dealt a hand for life and play each card one at a time the best way they know how. No mother is all good or all bad, all laughing or all serious, all loving or all angry. Ambivalence rushes through their veins.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
“He could jazz up the map-reading class by having a full-size color photograph of Betty Grable in a bathing suit, with a co- ordinate grid system laid over it. The instructor could point to different parts of her and say, “Give me the co-ordinates.”... The Major could see every unit in the Army using his idea.... Hot dog!”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)