42. In the case of Wong Chiou Yong v. Pendaftar Besar/Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara52 by High Court of Malaya, Ipoh, the learned judge in that case upheld the decision of the National Registration Department in refusing to amend or correct the birth certificate and National Registry Card of the plaintiff53. The plaintiff a trans man, filed an originating summons to declare him as a man and to direct the National Registration Department to amend or correct his birth certificate and the identity card to give effect him as a male. The plaintiff had undergone gender affirmation surgeries. The presiding judge, the late VT Singham J made the following decisions54: a) b) c) d) e) 43. A person who has undergone a sex change operation cannot be regarded as belonging to the sex for which reassignment surgery was undertaken for the purpose of correcting the registration of sex of the applicant on the Register of Births and National Registration Identity Card which was already issues; The words “male” and “female” in the documents did not include persons of reassigned sex and should not contrary to the biological characteristic when the applicant was born; The reassignment surgery did not affect the true gender status of the applicant at the time of birth. The birth certificate and national registration identity card was issued in accordance with the original identity of the applicant at the time of birth; The court has no power to declare the applicant who was born as female as male on the ground that there is insufficient materials to support this application; There is no express legislation to re-register the gender of a transsexual person or under the disguise of any error or fact or substance in the register pursuant to Section 27 (3) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1957 and Section 6(2)(o) of the National Registration Act 1959. Another similar case decided by the court on the same issue is the decision of Court of Appeal in Kristie Chan v Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara55. The plaintiff, a trans woman filed an originating summons at the high court to be declared as a female and to order the Director General of National Registration Department to change her identification details from “male” to “female”. She had undergone gender affirmation surgeries. However, the high court dismissed her application. She made an appeal and the Court of Appeal also dismissed the appeal based on reason that “as there was no evidence, medical and psychiatric, from Malaysian experts as what constituted sex and gender and whether a sex reassignment surgery would warrant a change of the sex description in the applicant’s identity card”56. 52 [2004] 3 MLRH 127, 136 53 The Malaysian Bar - Jefrey Jessie: Recoginising Transsexuals by Honey Tan Lay Ean on 17 November 2005. Accessed via http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/gender_issues/jeffrey_jessie_recognising_transexuals_by_honey_tan_lay_ean.html (accessed on 19 November 2015), please see also [2004] 3MLRH 127 54 [2004] 3MLRH 127, 136 55 [2013] 1 MLRA 113 56 [2013] 1 MLRA 113 at page 114 Report On Transgender Persons In KL And Selangor | 23