Just when I was feeling very proud of myself for creating an NRIC Validator on the OA, somebody had to buck my trend.
I was trying to clear a Mr Ang (not his actual name) into a protected location, hence I needed his NRIC Number.
His NRIC No was S17XXXXXF.
The validator said it was wrong. The checksum letter was "I". When we called the person (let's call him Mr Raj) that supplied us this contractor's NRIC number, he insisted it was
correct. He had even checked with Mr Ang, who insisted that
was his NRIC number.
That's impossible! The validator had never been wrong before!
What was more intriguing was that when we checked his date of birth, it was XX-Jul-1971.
XX-Jul-1971, S17XXXXXF. How is that possible? Hadn't NRIC numbers begun to register birth years since 1969?
In fact, after I rearranged the first two digits, the NRIC number became valid! (Switching 1 and 7 in this case changes the checksum by 3, thus moving
I to
F). So we called up Mr Raj and told him to ask Mr Ang why his birth year was not reflected in his NRIC. If there was anything nobody should be able to deny, it was that birth years ought to be in the NRIC number for people born in and after 1969.
Mr Raj later called back, saying Mr Ang insisted it was S17XXXXXF. WHY? WHY? WHY? Did he read his number off his NRIC? Or did he read it from his failing memory? Did he read it off his birth certificate? Does the national registry make exceptions to the checksum rule? (If they did, then why use checksums at all?) Or do they NOT even check that the letters have been assigned correctly? Did he read it off, say, a birth certificate or a driving licence where the number might have been keyed in wrongly? WHY WHY WHY does he INSIST S17XXXXXF is correct???
Exasperated, we just submited the S17XXXXXF NRIC Number.
