KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his Cabinet and all MPs will be given a counter-proposal on the government’s planned Bill – which critics say contain "regressive” amendments to the country's citizenship laws – with the hopes that they would protect the rights of Malaysia-born children to have automatic Malaysian citizenship, a civil group said today.

The Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance (MCRA) today said its main call is for the Malaysian government to "decouple” or separate the progressive amendment of enabling Malaysian mothers’ overseas-born children to have automatic Malaysian citizenship from regressive amendments including those that will remove automatic Malaysian citizenship from Malaysia-born children.

"That will be the best solution moving forward, decouple the Bill, stop the regressive amendments, that is the best and preferred solution,” MCRA spokesman Suriani Kempe said at a press conference at Yayasan Chow Kit, referring to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024.

As part of its main call, MCRA wants the government to only proceed with the progressive law change to enable children born overseas to Malaysian mothers to automatically gain Malaysian citizenship, and to make sure it applies to them before the amendment, and to delay the regressive amendments while carrying out further review and consultation.

But Suriani said if the government still wants to proceed with the Bill in its current form, MCRA wants the government to take into account its counter-proposal.

"We are sharing a copy of the counter proposals with all stakeholders, and this includes MPs, ministers, Suhakam, in the hopes that they will take our concerns on board and reflect them and think about them and consider them as they move forward with this Bill,” she said, referring to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) by its initials.

Sharmila Sekaran, another MCRA spokesman, said the counter-proposal will be sent to "all 222 MPs in Parliament, including the prime minister and his cabinet, the deputy ministers”.

Asked if MCRA will be sending the counter-proposal to the Conference of Rulers or work with Suhakam on this matter, Sharmila said MCRA is "not sending a memorandum or our counter proposal to the Rulers” as it has not been invited to do so.

"We stand ready to if they so wish, but at the moment, we've not been invited to, and we are not going to be,” she said.

"But we are sharing it with all stakeholders including Suhakam. We do hope Suhakam will go through them and consider them in preparing their own memorandum to the Conference of Rulers,” she said, adding that MCRA understands that Suhakam is seeking a meeting with the Conference of Rulers.

Sharmila said MCRA hopes Suhakam would consider the counter proposals and is ready to discuss the counter proposal with Suhakam.

In a 23-page document that MCRA is emailing to the Cabinet and all MPs and which summarises the key consequences of the regressive amendments, it includes a detailed 14-page list of recommendations for legal and procedural improvements to the government's Bill on citizenship law changes.

"The recommendations in the Counter Proposal aim to protect the automatic right to citizenship of Anak-anak Kita, our Malaysian children while addressing some of the concerns raised by the government.

"The improvements to the Bill that are recommended in the Counter Proposal can be included into the Bill either through motions to amend the Bill or by referring the Bill to a select committee,” the MCRA said.

The Bill is scheduled for second reading in the current Dewan Rakyat meeting, which ends July 18.

As it involves changes to the Federal Constitution, the Bill will need approval from two-thirds of all MPs, and subsequently also support from two-thirds from senators to become law.

The Conference of Rulers’ consent is also needed as the Bill involves changes to citizenship laws in the Federal Constitution.

MCRA is hoping that its recommended solutions can be added into the Bill before it is voted on in Parliament, if the government goes ahead with the proposal.

When preparing its counter-proposal, MCRA consulted leading lawyers, law experts, child rights experts, social sciences experts and academics, and representatives and advocates of impacted groups.

Here's a quick and simplified summary of the MCRA's counter-proposal on how problematic parts of the government's Bill can be improved:

The MCRA is a coalition of concerned Malaysians, activists and 18 organisations nationwide dedicated to upholding stateless persons' rights, including Family Frontiers; Voice of the Children (VOC); Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas, Malaysia; Yayasan Chow Kit (YCK); Buku Jalanan Chow Kit; National Human Rights Society; and the Stateless Malaysians Citizenship Movement.

Also part of MCRA are Borneo Komrad; Advocates for Non-discrimination and Access to Knowledge, Sabah; Lawyer Kamek; Association of Women Lawyers; HaKita; Johor Women’s League; Liga Rakyat; Persatuan Untuk Anak Kita; Malaysian Collaborative Practice Group; Bait Al Amanah; and IMAN Research.