Stale case: The MyKad photo of Pang Chee Pin that has been making its rounds on social media.
SEGAMAT: The image of an identity card of an Indian Malaysian with a Chinese name is making its rounds again to insinuate that “phantom voters” are popping up in the run up to the 15th General Election (GE15).
The MyKad photo of Pang Chee Pin was first used in GE13 for rumour mongering, say his adoptive family members, who are frustrated that social media users are again mindlessly circulating the image to claim that “foreigners” are given Malaysian identity cards to enable them to vote.
Pang, 39, was adopted by a Chinese family, hence his name.
His cousin, who only wanted to be known as Susan, 55, clarified that Pang is indeed a Malaysian who was adopted and brought up by her late uncle since he was one-year-old.
“I don’t know how the photo of his MyKad ended up on the Internet, but this has been going on for years. Since the 2013 election, the photo has been used to spread rumours of Bangladeshis being given MyKad.
“Every time we come close to an election, the photo will go viral. This happened in GE13, GE14, and now again for the upcoming election.
“At this point, we are already used to it. We have explained this matter in the previous election, but still there are those who believe in the rumours,” she told The Star when met at her house here.
She noted that the family had lost contact with Pang and the last time they saw him was about a decade ago in Kuala Lumpur.
“I really hope that people will stop sharing photos of his MyKad and use it to spread rumours.
“This has been going on long enough.
“I thought that it would not resurface again in this election, but it looks like it did,” she said, adding that Pang was adopted from his biological Indian family from Simpang Renggam.
Pang used to have an Indian name, but his adoptive family had asked permission from the authorities to allow it to be changed to a Chinese name.
He is known to speak fluent Mandarin, Hakka and Cantonese, and went to the same Chinese primary school as Susan.
Last Wednesday, the National Registration Department (NRD) dismissed rumours that many Bangladeshis had been issued MyKad ahead of GE15.
NRD also said insinuations that MyKad could be issued to just anyone are untrue, and that the individual whose MyKad was used in a viral message is a Malaysian citizen.
“The individual was legally adopted and raised by a Chinese family from birth. In fact, this has been reported by the media before,” it said.
