IPOH, MALAYSIA: For over 20 years, three siblings have had to live their lives without the MyKads(official compulsory identity cards of Malaysia) that many take for granted.

Factory worker Kaliamma Yusuf Ali, 27, said the problem started when their parents failed to register her birth and those of her sister Mariamma, 23, and their brother Mani, 21.

Their father Yusuf Ali Chandwara, 59, is Muslim while their late mother N. Suseela was a Hindu.

Without a MyKad, Kaliamma said she could not apply for EPF or Socso benefits, nor obtain a passport to travel overseas.

"It has been difficult for me to find full-time work. I can only get contract jobs," she told reporters yesterday during a National Registration Department (NRD) exercise at Ipoh Town Hall.

She said her parents did not register their marriage.

Stressing that the three of them were Malaysians born in Ipoh, Kaliamma added that it had taken years for her to get her own birth certificate but the sections for race and nationality had the words "information not provided".

"I am from a poor family so I didn't know how to apply for a MyKad. Life has been hard without one," said the mother of two.

"While I have not run into any trouble with the law, my brother has been caught twice for not having a MyKad."

Earlier, Tamil Nesan journalist S. Bala lashed out at department officers for barring photographers from taking pictures of the registration inside the hall.

Bala, who is also Perak Press Club assistant secretary, said the media were only doing their jobs by helping to publicise NRD's efforts to register stateless people.