Old IC, New IC

I remembered being laughed at when I showed my old identity card (IC) to this lady when I wanted to borrow books from my university’s library. That was in 1991, I was 19, the library was at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and my student card was not yet ready. I didn’t really put much thought about it at that time but after I got my student card a few days later (which looked like our current MyKad minus the microchip), I started to realise that we Malaysians were quite behind in this kind of technology.

When MyKad was introduced in September 2001, there was quite a buzz about it nationwide, particularly since it was touted as the world’s first smart identity card, which can be extended to other uses such as driver’s license, ATM card, passport etc etc, all with the purpose of making life easier for the people.

To current IC cardholders, however, it was just another round of hassle and stress since the process of MyKad application is really a pain in the ass.

Sidetracking a bit, I remembered the hassle I went through to get my replacement MyKad. I arrived at the JPN Taman Maluri office very early in the morning. There were already a lot of people queueing up in front of the door by then. When they opened the door, it took me about one hour to move about 10 metres just to get a number. I was number 80 something if I was not mistaken. Then it took me another 3 hours to get to the counter. Why? Because they only opened TWO counters. It would’ve been much faster if they opened more counters. People didn’t have to waste so much time waiting.

Hopefully things are better now.

Okay.. back to my ramblings…

It is now towards the end of 2007 and based on the efforts of the government to equip everyone with MyKad, I assume that everybody has it already. So, my question is: Why do we need old IC anymore? Most of the time, whenever I filled up forms, I was asked for my old IC number. I don’t get it. If MyKad is to replace the old IC, then what’s the point of asking for the old IC number? Shouldn’t the new one suffice?

I personally think that the old IC should be buried forever and the use of MyKad is enforced fully. What’s the point of having new things if the old ones they are supposed to replace are still being used?

 

~ by Awangku Yusli on October 24, 2007.