Fridae

The Malaysian Department of Home Affairs has announced that they will conduct an in-depth study and take into account feedback from the public before deciding if those who undergo sex-change operations can be allowed to alter their sex status in birth certificates and identity cards under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1957.

The move came after the Ipoh High Court ruling that a woman who underwent a sex change operation could not change her sex status to male.

According to Malaysian news reports, Wong Chiou Yoong, 33, had filed the application with the High Court last year after failing to alter her birth certificate and identity card at the National Registration Department.

Wong's lawyer, Mohd Asri Othman told the court that a new identity card recently issued to Wong in replacement of a lost one had listed her gender as male but the identity card number indicated that she was a female.

Mohd Asri said Wong continued to experience problems with the new identity card, as banks still did not recognise Wong to be a male.

Justice Datuk V.T. Singham in his decision said there was no legislation in the country that allowed transsexuals to register their new gender and suggested that the current legislative measures pertaining to registration of transsexuals be reviewed.

Wong who claimed she was born with two sexual organs, had a gender reassignment operation at the Women's Fertility Centre in Penang on April 2002 and currently works in Singapore.

While sex change operations are legal in Malaysia, a 20-year-old decision by the country's Council of Rulers prohibits those from the majority Muslim community from having such surgery.

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Datuk Tan Chai Ho said that the authorities needed to study it closely as the case where a court ruled it had no jurisdiction to do so was the first such case in the country.

Wong's application was rejected by the National Registration Department as there was no mistake in her birth certificate and identity card and neither was there provision under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act to change her gender, he said.

He noted that such changes were allowed in Singapore and Australia. Singapore allows postoperative transsexuals to have their new sex reflected in their identity cards and passports, however birth certificates remain the same. In January 1996, Singapore legalised opposite sex marriages involving transsexuals.

Australia however issues new birth certificates and other documents to transsexuals. In October 2001, a marriage between a woman and a female-to-male transsexual was declared valid by the Family Court.

While Bangkok is known to be the transsexual and sex change hub of Asia, a post-operative transsexual female cannot marry a biological male because Thai law does not permit transsexuals to legally change their gender.