Friday August 17, 2012

Ipoh man alive, kicking and eager to vote

By MANJIT KAUR
manjit@thestar.com.my

ACCORDING to the Election Commission, Foo Tong Seng died 29 years ago, but the 74-year-old is very much alive and is eager to vote in the next general election.

The father of three tried to vote in the 2004 and 2008 elections, but was told by polling station officers that his name was not on the roll.

Not wanting to miss the chance to vote in the next general election, he sought help from the Perak Barisan Nasional Public Service and Complaints Centre chief Mohd Rawi Abdullah last September.

Mohd Rawi then helped Foo fill the forms to register him as a voter.

Living person: Foo displaying his identity card and the print out from the Election Commission which stated his status as a dead person.

However, when Foo checked, he was told that he had been classified as dead by the EC.

“I was shocked when I followed Mohd Rawi to the EC office last week to check my status. I was given a printout with my photograph and name stating that I had passed away on Sept 14, 1983, and I am supposedly 105 years old.

“My address in their record is B33, Kg Pinang Pusing, Kinta, Perak, when in fact I am staying in Ipoh Garden, a stone’s throw away from the centre.

“The postcode is stated as 00000, the city and state unknown, my date of birth Sept 14, 1907.

“The puzzling part is that my MyKad number that was correct, clearly showed that I was born in 1938,” the visibly upset Foo told a press conference in Ipoh.

Mohd Rawi said the EC and the National Registration Department (NRD) must explain how this situation came about.

“It shows that the departments do not have proper links,” he said.

State NRD director Alias Mamat requested that Foo come to the department to check on the problem.