By Ili Liyana Mokhtar

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - All nonagenarian Chong Yik Sheng wants is to breathe his last as a Malaysian.

Chong, who said he was born in Serdang in 1910, has been waiting for four decades for his identity card.

He has no living relatives and has been living in an old folks' home run by the Siri Jayanti Welfare organisation for three years.

"I speak very good Bahasa Malaysia and there should be no doubt that I'm Malaysian," he said at the home yesterday.

Addressing himself as "Ah Pek", he said he had lived in Bukit Teratai in Ampang and was known as "pakcik mangga" (the mango uncle) to the people in the area as he sold mangoes from his backyard and sold fish raised in a pond.

He was taken to the home by good Samaritans when he could no longer take care of himself.

"It was difficult for me to find work as I did not have the proper documents, several other homes also did not want to take me in because I did not have an IC."

He first applied for his identity card when he was 58 years old after coming back from Thailand where he worked as a rubber tapper.

"I was taken by Japanese soldiers to Thailand. When I came back after my wife passed away, I asked a friend to help me apply for identification papers but the application was rejected because I did not have the proper documents."

Asked about the secret of his longevity, Chong who has been married three times jokingly said: "I like looking at pretty girls."

Chong's plight was highlighted by a Chinese newspaper on Sunday, which led to a visit by Datuk Lau Yeng Peng, the special officer to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, yesterday.

"We have taken all the necessary details and I will be filing his application this week. We will also take into consideration special factors like his age," Lau said.

He said the ministry was clearing 33,000 applications for citizenship from 1997 to 2006.

"We hope to clear the applications by the end of the year."

There are 17,000 applications for permanent residence and 94,000 applications for late birth certificates still pending.

--New Straits Times