I REFER to the letter, 'Baby's birth cert reverses parental joy' by Mr Joseph Tan (Sept 20).

My sister has a birth certificate number that includes five No. 4s, with four of them consecutive, meaning her birth certificate is XX4-X4444X. Now, I consider that even more inauspicious than Mr Tan's case. We are also Chinese and sensitive to auspicious beliefs, but my parents had no qualms at all about her receiving that particular birth certificate.

I fully sympathise with Mr Tan, but if an exception is made in his case and he is allowed to change his child's certificate number, then, as a democratic society, shouldn't other Singaporeans be allowed to as well? Soon people will call the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and requesting a change of their birth certificate number because they don't like it or deem it inauspicious. Now that would be a serious problem our country does not need.

Mr Tan is not the only one on the receiving end of an inauspicious number. Given the almost limitless combinations of numbers, there are bound to be people who have received 'doomed' numbers like 666 or 1313.

To be fair to others and to preserve the stability of our system, the ICA should stand by its decision. However, I sincerely hope Mr Tan gets over this case of bad luck.

Brendan Lee

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 3, 2008.

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