KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Ramkarpal Singh today expressed confidence that Parliament can approve changes to the Federal Constitution this year to enable the overseas-born children (OBC) of Malaysian mothers to get Malaysian citizenship automatically.

The deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department (law and institutional reform) said the government has given its commitment to amend the Federal Constitution to overcome the "anomaly” where such OBCs are deprived of citizenship.

"I can confirm that the necessary process has begun, and we are confident that the said amendments are expected to be passed within this year which may obviate the need for the Federal Court to decide on the matter since same may become academic as a result of the said amendments,” Ramkarpal said in his virtual speech at a Family Frontiers’ talk titled "Malaysia Speaks: Launch of Public Opinion Survey on #PindaPerkara14” this morning.

Family Frontiers has an appeal pending at the Federal Court in their bid to pursue automatic Malaysian citizenship for Malaysian mothers' OBCs, this case has yet to have any hearing dates fixed. Ramkarpal was suggesting that such an appeal may no longer be necessary if the constitutional amendments were passed in Parliament.

He pointed to a joint announcement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said in February that the Cabinet has agreed to these constitutional amendments which would also require consultation with the Conference of Rulers.

In their joint statement dated February 17, Saifuddin Nasution and Azalina announced that the Cabinet had agreed 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.

This proposed change would enable children born overseas to Malaysian mothers to automatically be Malaysian citizens instead of having to go through a lengthy application process with no guarantee of success, and would also be in line with the Federal Constitution's Article 8(2) which disallows gender discrimination.

Currently, automatic Malaysian citizenship is conferred only to children born overseas to Malaysian fathers.

Azalina previously told Malay Mail in early March that the Malaysian government hopes to table these constitutional amendments in Parliament in the June sitting, while Saifuddin Nasution had on March 23 told the Dewan Rakyat that the government would be able to table these law changes in September.

During the Family Frontiers event today, speakers and members of the audience vented about the long wait and red tape in amending the laws to make OBCs of Malaysian mothers Malaysians too.

During a discussion on the plight of Malaysian mothers, Family Frontiers president Suriani Kempe said many still congratulate the advocacy group on a job well done after the Cabinet's February 17 decision to agree to change the laws to let Malaysian women pass on their citizenship.

But she said it was not the time to congratulate Malaysian mothers yet, as the timeline for the tabling of the proposed law changes in Parliament has been pushed back repeatedly to the current expected month of September.

"So that leaves us, I feel, as mothers, it's feeling more and more precarious, because we don't know, this thing is out of our control at this point. But I feel at the end of the day, we are hopeful, we are still cautiously optimistic.

"And it's always encouraging to hear ministers saying 'yes, we are confident'. This is where we are at, we are very much in limbo at this point, everything is dependent on the government to table this amendment," she said.

A member of the audience suggested that the home minister could instruct the National Registration Department (NRD) to make it easier for Malaysian mothers to apply for citizenship for their OBCs while waiting for the constitutional amendments to be tabled in Parliament.

But Suriani said that such stop-gap measures would not be sufficient and could be short-lived.

She said Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had previously as home minister (from 2009 to 2013) said there was no need to amend the Federal Constitution as the government could ease up on the bureaucracy and facilitate the Malaysian mothers' applications, but there were only two years of the NRD facilitating such applications before approvals plunged over the years.

"So it becomes subject to the whims and fancies and arbitrary decision-making of the minister and the ministry, we don't want that. At the end of the day, we want this right to be guaranteed to women. This is a right that women and our children should be entitled to citizenship in the same way that children of Malaysian men are entitled to citizenship, tiada beza antara kita (no differences between us) in that regard," she said.

She said that the fact Malaysian mothers have to apply for their OBCs to have Malaysian citizenship is already an inequality, as Malaysian fathers' OBCs do not have to apply for citizenship and would automatically be Malaysians.

Dewan Negara lawmaker Datuk Seri Zurainah Musa, who is from Umno, urged the federal government to speedily table the Bill to amend the citizenship laws for Malaysian mothers' overseas-born children.

"I would like both Houses to hear this Bill and I would like for it not to be postponed anymore. It was postponed from February to May, now to September, so I hope the MPs in the Dewan Rakyat would actually table this Bill, so it can be brought up to Dewan Negara, where I'm sure in Dewan Negara, we would support this Bill one hundred percent," she said, adding that she had previously brought a motion to discuss this citizenship issue in the Dewan Negara and that it had received widespread support from lawmakers of different political parties.

"However, because of bureaucracy, because of you know, the boxes have to be ticked, I guess this is why we are still here," she later said when asked why she thought the Bill had yet to be tabled despite all political parties promising it in their 15th general election manifesto.

Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said the organisation has been engaging with the government on citizenship issues for Malaysian mothers with OBCs, and that the Legal Affairs Division (BHEUU) in the Prime Minister's Department has already started the ball rolling on the proposed amendment.

Noor Aziah said there were multiple and separate categories of those seeking to be recognised as Malaysian citizens, including children who were adopted by Malaysians, and children who were born in Malaysia to Malaysian fathers (who were not married to the non-Malaysian mothers at the time of the child's birth) and who the government thinks should take on the citizenship of their non-Malaysian mother, and also natives in remotes areas of east Malaysia who were unable to register their marriages to non-Malaysians and which resulted in their children being denied Malaysian citizenship.

"To me, let's start with this basket, giving Malaysian mothers the right to give their citizenship to their children born abroad to a foreign father," she said, adding that Malaysia should at least clear one hurdle in citizenship issues.

But she also expressed hope that the Malaysian government would also address citizenship issues for adopted children and illegitimate children in their planned amendments to citizenship laws in the Federal Constitution.