Birth certificates

At a very young age I was very aware that many of us did not have birth certificates.

There were several reasons why we did have any.

Those of us who hailed from Ulu Baram were brought down by the Education Department to study in TLS. Births were not registered at all when babies came into the world.

Most births were handled by village midwives or traditional doctors. And in fact names were given according to our own cultural systems. Many of us had our cultural names.

It was later when we accepted Christianity or other religious that we adopted new names. I was Sawan anak Jiram and when I became a Catholic in Miri, I adopted Christopher as my baptismal name.

My birth certificate was a late registration so I am not quite sure if my birthday was authentic. But my father was educated enough to have my birth certificate made in Limbang. All my brothers and sisters did get their proper birth certficates without much trouble.


Today most rural children would face a lot of trouble if their parents did not register their births properly.