KUCHING, Feb 19 — Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) president Bobby William today urged the federal government to also include the status of stateless individuals in the amendment to the Malaysian Constitution to enable them to become citizens.

He said it is about time for the government to solve the stateless issue mostly involving the natives in rural Sarawak once and for all.

"The citizenship issue has long been outstanding that has haunted many Sarawakians, especially the natives,” Bobby said when asked to respond to the federal government’s decision to amend the Federal Constitution to enable children born abroad to Malaysian mothers to gain automatic Malaysian citizenship.

"There are many stateless natives who are Sarawakians who have applied for the citizenship certification in the past but have not been approved by the Home Ministry,” he said.

He urged Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof to fight for these Sarawakians, who are without citizenship certification, in the federal Cabinet.

Bobby said he also hopes that Sarawak is given the full autonomy to grant citizenship to individuals born in the state.

He said he welcomes the federal government’s decision to amend the constitution to enable children born overseas to Malaysian mothers to be granted automatic citizenship.

Sarawak Minister of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Datuk Sri Fatimah Abdullah also expressed her gratitude that the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is implementing the principle of gender equality and giving priority to the rights of children.

"I hope that with other cases which involved applications of citizenship for children under 15A of the Federal Constitution would also be given the same consideration for the sake of our stateless children,” she said.

In a joint statement yesterday, the Home and Law and Institutional Reform Ministries said the federal Cabinet has agreed to amend the Federal Constitution to enable children born abroad to Malaysian mothers to gain automatic Malaysian citizenshipHome Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Law and Institutional Reform Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said added that the amendment is expected to be tabled in the current Dewan Rakyat sitting.

They said the Cabinet had agreed last Friday in its meeting to the proposal to amend the Federal Constitution, in particular, Section 1(1)(d) and Section 1(1)(e) of Part I in the Second Schedule, and Section 1(b) and Section 1(c) in Part II of the same schedule.

The proposed amendments seek to address the long-standing citizenship dilemma of children born overseas to Malaysian mothers and non-Malaysian fathers, enabling them to become Malaysian citizens by operation of law, meaning automatically without having to apply to be one personally as is the current situation.