Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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PETALING JAYA: A couple who were prevented from following the family tradition when naming their child are deeply upset with the National Registration Department (NRD) over its little-known rule concerning the word Guru.

The child’s parents, who had wished to name their son Guru Ram Naidu, were told by the NRD that they could not use Guru as a separate word because the department has a rule against it.

A Sanskrit word which means teacher in many Indian languages and Malay, it is a common name among Hindus and Sikhs.

In the incident which involved the NRD branch in Sungai Petani, Kedah, the child’s mother, Magesvari Chanthiran, 31, was told that Guru could not be used as a stand-alone word in a name, her brother C Maran said.

The child was born two years ago but the parents misplaced the birth document and they needed to request for a replacement, said Maran. They finally went to register the boy’s name in January this year.

After the matter was brought to the attention of the department’s state headquarters in Alor Setar, Magesvari had to compromise and name her child Gururam Naidu.

Maran said the family is unhappy over the compromise but does not wish to prolong the matter.

“Guru is my nephew’s family name. Ram would be his name and Naidu is his caste name. There’s a meaning behind all of it,” he told The Edge Financial Daily.

However, what annoyed the family even more, according to Maran, was that the NRD officer in attendance had allegedly said Guru is a Muslim word, so non-Muslims are barred from using it.

“I wanted to know if it is against regulations for non-Muslims to carry the name Guru. I wanted to know if it is reserved like the royal names of Tengku, Tunku, Syed and Megat ... so I contacted the offices in Penang and Alor Setar, and both [of the persons I spoke to] said there’s nothing of the sort.

“When we finally got the birth certificate it wasn’t the name that we first applied for. We are not happy. I don’t know why the name Guru can be used in Alor Setar and Penang but not Sungai Petani,” Maran complained.

NRD: Guru can’t stand on its own, according to circular

NRD public relations head Fara Maya Ahmad Jelani said that the departmental circular on the use of names — including Guru — had been issued many years ago and is “not a new thing”.

“In Malay, Guru is considered a kata nama khas (special title) reserved for luminaries. It is used in the context of Guru Besar (headmaster), for instance, and it is akin to Professor and the like.

“Therefore, to avoid confusion, we don’t allow the word Guru as a stand-alone name. The word Guru can be used but it must be joined with another word — in this case, Gururam. This sort of compromise has been around for quite some time. “This was how we resolved the Sungai Petani case. We requested that they merge the name,” said Fara Maya.

MIC: Who is NRD to decide for parents?

In response, MIC leaders criticised the NRD for stopping the couple from naming their child in line with the family norm.

MIC deputy president and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam called the department’s action a mistake and said it was ignorant of the officer to disallow the name and to request a compromised name for the boy.

“Guru is used as a name by many Indians. Names like Guruseelan and Gurumoorthy are quite common among Malaysian Indians. I feel it is a mistake by an ignorant officer,” said Subramaniam in an SMS reply.

MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari was more caustic, saying that it was wrong of the NRD to decide for the parents how they should name their child. He questioned the department’s “expertise” concerning naming conventions and mastery of languages.

“On what grounds and basis can they make such a regulation ... such a circular? If it is under the Malay context, there are a lot of other Tamil, Sanskrit, Portuguese and Arabic words in Malay. If you look at it all, are you saying there are a lot more that cannot be used?

“This is what happens when we have ill-educated fellows who are sitting there, making their own decisions, making up their own rules and understanding of the language. If there was a compromise, it should not be, and the boy should be named how the parents want him to be named.

“Guru is originally a Sanskrit word. It is used religiously by many Indian ethnic groups and religions, like the founder of Sikhism — Guru Nanak. For many millennia, the Indians have been naming their children [without any compromise]. You cannot just say that this is under the Malay context.

“I’m going to bring this matter up with Dr Subramaniam next week. This is a serious issue and we need to discuss it,” he said.

Vell Paari told The Edge Financial Daily that he was alerted via a viral WhatsApp message about the situation. He then instructed MIC Sungai Petani division chairman TH Subra to deal with the issue.

Subra also holds the post of special adviser for Indian affairs to Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir.

Subra said that he contacted the boy’s mother and tried to find the best solution he possibly could.

“The best I could do for them was a compromise. I didn’t want to prolong the issue and they were able to accept the compromise. In the end, they decided to merge the names Guru and Ram instead of separating them.

“The Kedah deputy state NRD director informed me that, apparently, the word Guru cannot stand on its own as a name,” said Subra. However, he is uncertain whether this rule comes from the federal or state level.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 27, 2015.

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