PUTRAJAYA: The government will commence a massive nationwide registration exercise to register all undocumented Malaysian Indians as the first step in the implementation of the Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB).
MIC president Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam said 23 zones throughout the country have been identified for the drive which is expected to start in Selangor on July 3.
"This will be our first move as part of the MIB, as envisioned by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, when he launched it last month.
"In the drive, we sought to register all those without citizenship, late registration of birth and those without identification card.
"We also aimed to solve issues of those who have registered with us in the past," he told reporters today.
He said the move will go on throughout the month of July, in an effort to reach out to Indians across the country and get them to come forward and register voluntarily.
Dr Subramaniam said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also the Home Minister, has expressed willingness to setup a special team, comprising of staff from the Ministry, particularly the National Registration Department (NRD) to assist them in this process.
Over the past four years, he said, MIC through the MyDaftar programme have provided 7,126 people with the documentations needed out of 12,726 which have registered with them.
While the rejected 626 applications were being re-processed, for registration, he added.
Dr Subramaniam said since "some people" had claimed that there are 200,000 Indians in the country without documentation, the exercise is hoped to be able to reveal the real figure.
"We have only gotten some 12,000 to come register in the last four years. So through this exercise, we hope to know if there are many more to register, as what was claimed." he added.