We don't need identity

Sad to say, many if not most Malaysians don't realize that an Identity Card is not a norm in nearly the rest of the world...especially Europe. In fact, it is abolished in the rest of the free world but almost all Malaysians feel that MyKads are a must for the sake of order and coordination. We think its for a better, more efficient system which we hope would lead to our convenience. Sure we may say that helping the government keep record of civilians and making crime fighting a less difficult ordeal are few of the benefits of I.C.'s. What we do not realize is that it is at the same time an exploitation of our human rights, not to mention its potential to invade the sanctity of our private lives (but i'm not going to touch on that now). The government of Malaysia indeed had a very good reason for the implementation of the identity card. It was introduced to eradicate Communists in Malaysia. I guessed it did play a part in aiding the government's efforts to completely wipe Communism out, although i don't know exactly how the I.C. helped fight the communist guerrilla warfare at that time. It has already been declared that Malaysia is free of communist guerrilla for some time now but the identity card still remains in the system. We have been told that it is necessary to have the I.C.'s for the convenience of all and for the greater good.

The question now is, why do the rest of the world refuse to enforce identity cards? Wouldn't it benefit them the same way the I.C.'s benefit us? If it indeed improves the system, why not? To answer these questions we need to look back at history. It was during the pandemonium times of World War 2 and the Nazi's had control in almost all of Europe. They then enforced the use of an identity card upon the civilians of Nazi-controlled Europe. It was a form of a ration card its ultimate purpose was to separate the Jews and the other ethnic groups who suffered the wrath of the Nazi's during the Holocaust. The identity cards were a major tool in the Holocaust and it became a symbol of persecution and segregation. Thus its clear that identity cards do lubricate government machinery in their administrative tasks. The Nazi's needed something to help systematically separate ethnic and religious groups in Europe and the I.C.'s proved to be effective.

Lets also look into the civil war/genocide that took place in Rwanda more than a decade ago. It was a bloody feud between 2 apparently ethnic groups who were the Hutu's and Tutsi's. During their Belgian occupation, the Rwandans were separated into these 2 groups mostly according to their wealth(number of cows) and the length of their nose. German colonists thought the prominent nose of some of the Rwandans were evidence that they may be genetically linked to the Europeans and hence they (who at that time having the Aryan superiority mind-frame) considered the Rwandans who were richer and had more prominent noses to be superior than the blunt nosed, less wealthy Rwandans. So the colonists decided to divide the prominent nosed Rwandans to be Tutsis and the blunt nosed Rwandans to be Hutu's(yes they actually measured their noses) and they did so by issuing identity cards to the Rwandans. So every Rwandan had a "Hutu" or "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. The Tutsis enjoyed speciality by the European colonists but when the Europeans left, the leadership of the country was taken over by the Hutus. This gave a chance for the Hutus to take "revenge" on their apparently "superior" brothers, the Tutsis. Of course like always, it was the Hutu politicians who sparked the fray of killing the Tutsis and sooner than later, it grew into a genocide. Hutu militants massacred those who had the "Tutsi" stamp on their identity cards. We can see that the identity card turns out to be an instrument of segregation among the people of Rwanda and indeed the Belgian colonist are to a certain extend responsible for the bloodshed in Rwanda.

Isn't it now clear why identity cards are an abomination in the free world? It was the tool of segregation and genocide as history has clearly revealed. If I'm not mistaken, Malaysia and Singapore are the only 2 countries which makes the identity card mandatory. If we notice, the MyKad we carry states the bearer's religion(non-Muslim or Muslim). If bearer is Muslim, "Muslim" will be printed on the card below the bearer's picture but that space will be void if the bearer is non-Muslim. Also, but i don't really remember, we are required to write our race in the MyKad application form. I've been trying to find a copy of the JPN.KP01 form which is the form to be filled when someone applies for a MyKad for the first time but i can't find it on Google.

Now please don't get me wrong....of course I'm not saying that the government intends to bring about an ethnic cleansing or what not. But why have the MyKad in the first place? So that the system can be more efficient?..Bullocks! Countries like USA and Japan don't have identity cards...are they suffering inefficiency? In fact, shameful to say, Malaysia lacks efficiency in many administrative areas hence the Mykad doesn't seem to be serving its supposed purpose. There are tonnes of other ways to identify a person. We have passports, credit cards, driving licenses, and etc. The I.C. is not the ONLY way a person is acquire so called "identity". I end saying that we should abolish the MyKad. It may not be harmful to Malaysians but I don't see a reason besides segregation that we are required to hold a MyKad.

*If you would like to know more about the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide, i recommend watching Schindler's List or Hotel Rwanda.