Hannah & hubby: Officer listed 'Chinese'. Rama & Yeoh: Truly Malaysians!

Subang Jaya assemblyperson Hannah Yeoh and her husband Ramachandran Muniandy, who failed to register their daughter's race as 'Anak Malaysia', clarified today that the final choice of 'Chinese' was picked by the National Registration Department (NRD) officer.

The couple (left) said in statement to Malaysiakini today that Chinese was what the system/officer picked even though they demanded for 'Anak Malaysia and they maintained that neither Chinese nor Indian is inaccurate to define the race of their daughter, Shay Adora Ram.

The couple said that considering that the ethnicity provided for in the system is already incorrect, it makes no difference if she's Chinese or Indian. Therefore, they proceeded with the system's selection in order to obtain the birth certificate first.

The couple said, "Truth matters. Recognise her mixed parentage and her Malaysian identity and register her accurately is all that we ask of the NRD."

Yeoh told Malaysiakini on Tuesday she and Ramachandran wanted to put off the birth registration of their child, but the NRD officer had cautioned her that late registration of the birth would cause problems, therefore she had no choice but to proceed with the registration even though Shay's current ethnicity defined in the birth certificate was inaccurate - hence meaningless.