KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — A Selangor-born teenage boy who has been waiting for five years finally received official word that the government has approved his 2015 application to be recognised as a Malaysian.
Today was initially scheduled for hearing before High Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan of the boy's lawsuit to seek to be declared a citizen, but the boy's lawyer Annou Xavier said the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) informed him this morning that the child's citizenship application has been granted.
“We are grateful to KDN for granting the citizenship and for making him as part of the big family of Malaysia,” Annou told reporters when met outside the courtroom, referring to the Home Ministry by its Malay initials.
The story of the child
The boy, who will be turning 14 this year, was born in a Selangor clinic to unknown biological parents, with his initial birth certificate not carrying any information on his biological parents and classifying him as “Bukan Warganegara” or non-citizen, court papers sighted by Malay Mail show.
The child was then legally adopted by a Malaysian couple through a 2012 court order.
The new birth certificate subsequently issued in 2013 by the government maintained the child's classification as a non-citizen, despite updating details in the certificate by naming his adoptive Malaysian parents as his father and mother.
The family then applied to the National Registration Department (NRD) in March 2013 to grant citizenship to the child via the Federal Constitution's Article 15A, which empowers the government to register anyone below the age of 21 as a citizen in special circumstances as it sees fit. At this time, the boy was six years old.
After about a year and a half, the Home Ministry replied in a letter to say that the child's citizenship application under Article 15A was unsuccessful but did not explain why, while also stating that new citizenship applications could be filed.
When the child was eight years old, the family made a second attempt in January 2015 by filing a fresh citizenship application under Article 15A for the boy.
Almost four years later, the Home Ministry sent the family a letter in October 2018, informing them that the child's citizenship application is still being processed. At this time, the boy was just months away from turning 12.
The family's lawyers then wrote twice to the Home Ministry in May 2019 and July 2019 to ask for a decision on the child's citizenship application and to offer any additional documents if required, but received no response.
“Second time, when they applied, there was no answer for three years, four years. They were kept waiting for a long time. And how long to wait, because the child is growing up, he's going to school, quite an intelligent, smart, hardworking boy. How long to wait? So we have no choice but to file a suit in court,” he said of the family's decision to file the court challenge in October 2019.
In the lawsuit filed on October 2, 2019 by the child's adoptive mother and the child, they had named the National Registration Department's director-general, the Home Ministry chief secretary and the Malaysian government as respondents.
In their lawsuit, the duo were seeking several court orders, including for the teenage boy to be declared a Malaysian citizen, to be issued a new birth certificate and an identification card to both state that he is a Malaysian citizen.
Citizenship granted
Larissa Ann Louis, another lawyer representing the family, said the Home Ministry had on February 4 emailed a letter to notify them to collect the decision letter on the child's citizenship application under Article 15A.
“Basically, we got a letter to state that the decision of the application can be collected from KDN. So we will collect the letter,” she told reporters when met, adding that she had subsequently confirmed that the letter was regarding the approval of the pending citizenship bid.
Annou said that the lawyers and the family would be going to the Home Ministry's office in Putrajaya to collect the citizenship approval letter.
Lawyer Sharmila Sekaran was present to hold a watching brief for Voice of the Children, an organisation which she also chairs.
Waiting and waiting
The Selangor-based family was present in court today with the child, but declined to be identified or photographed for privacy purposes.
The mother said the family was “happy” that the child would be recognised as a citizen after a long wait, adding that she was surprised when told recently that the citizenship application had been approved.
The mother admitted that the family had been anxious, worried and nervous as they waited for an answer on the boy's citizenship application, and that they had previously gone to Putrajaya to ask for updates on the child's case but were always just told to wait.
Before this the family did not know of the option of going to court, with the mother saying that they only knew of this after reading a report in the newspaper Sin Chew Daily regarding a citizenship court case involving a Perak-born stateless child.
Annou and Larissa were also the lawyers for that case, where the High Court ruled in favour of the Perak child and declared her a Malaysian citizen.
Both the father and mother of the Selangor-born child said the child would face more problems in the future when he is older if he does not have a Malaysian identification card, with both of them also thanking the lawyers for being passionate and for working hard on their son's citizenship application.
“Thanks to the government for giving us such great help,” the father said.
Lawyers familiar with citizenship issues have in the past highlighted the difficulties that would be faced by those who are stateless or without any nationality in Malaysia, including being unable to open bank accounts or apply for bank loans, register their marriages and being denied other benefits that Malaysians enjoy.
Lawyers have also previously told Malay Mail that Putrajaya should automatically grant citizenship to stateless children born in Malaysia once they are adopted by Malaysian parents.
