Malaysia just gazetted the 10-year passport. It will be RM350 for 10 years (compared to RM200 for 5 years currently)
But thereโs no indication that they will fix the 1 problem we are still facing: the Malaysian passport has one โNameโ field. No separate given name. No separate surname.
Most of the world assumes everyone splits into First + Last. The Malaysian document doesnโt make that split for you.
If you look at your passport at the bottom of the biodata page, there are 2 lines where there's a lot of <<<<<<<<<<<
It's called the Machine Readable Zone, or MRZ. It is the part a scanner reads at immigration and check in counters everywhere in the world.
It uses the ICAO 9303 standard, the global rulebook for passports. The "<" are filler characters.
Look at line one of the MRZ on our passport:
P<MYSMAHATHIR<BIN<IDRUS<<<<<<<<<<
Notice the format. The single < is just a space between words. The double << is the divider that separates surname from given names.
This means that to all scanners everywhere, we only have 1 name. No First Name + Last Name.
Also the printed name is simply MAHATHIR BIN IDRUS in one block. No First Name + Last Name.