When Athena was born, Shook went to National Registration Department to get her registered. However, when he got home, we both noticed that she is listed as a Malay in her birth certificate. So, figuring that we will need Shook around to prove that he is Melanau so that she could be listed as a Melanau, we waited until yesterday to get the paperwork done.

All this time, we figured it was just NRD's incompetence that got her listed as a Malay. As it turned out, the problem went much further than that. When the NRD checked Shook's IC, it was discovered that his IC has him listed as a Malay. So, until he changes his IC, we cannot change Athena's birth certificate. And to change Shook's IC, we have to ask his dad to check his race as the children's race follow their father's.

The funny thing is you could write your race as 'Alien' in the form and the NRD will still use whatever is in their database under your name. It was rather amusing yet annoying at the same time.

But the whole fiasco just proves that no matter how government departments want to seem competent, someone somewhere always manages to screw it up.

I urged Shook to write about this in the Melanau Pride group forum in Facebook because I suspect all the Melanaus now should check exactly what they are listed as under NRD or in their IC. And, if you do have Facebook, this is what he meant by being wiped out.