KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — The road to amending the nation’s citizenship laws, which are not in favour of Malaysian mothers with overseas-born children, is not a smooth one and requires several processes, de facto law minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.
Speaking at the Keluarga Malaysia Symposium here, Wan Junaidi said that amendments to the necessary laws are under study, and the government is working to address all the issues related to the matter.
“The constitutional amendment on children’s citizenship, this too is still under study. I will persist with the committee that the Cabinet ordered to be formed via the establishment of a technical committee to carry out a detailed study. What we need to do is examine the types of constitutional amendments required. It is not as easy as many claim — just amend the one word.
“Someone met me a few days ago when I was attending an event to celebrate Singapore’s national day. That person said just amend one word. No, because in relation to the constitutional amendments linked to citizenship, it goes beyond the government to the Conference of Rulers and others.
“So there are many more things that need to be done before we can promise it will reach Parliament. But this is in the framework that we consider critical and must be addressed because it affects too many.
“I have witnessed it for myself. I cannot take what these mothers are going through. Not abroad, they are here in Malaysia now. These mothers, their children not being Malaysian citizens,” he said.
Wan Junaidi added that the issue must be tackled professionally, rationally and humanely.
“So I want to tell these mothers who meet me. Please. Enough. At the end of the day, it is not only you who cry; I cry too,” he added.
The Court of Appeal, in a majority decision on August 5, saw two judges ruling that the overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers cannot automatically be Malaysian citizens.
Datuk S. Nantha Balan was the only judge on the panel who disagreed, pointing out that Malaysia’s citizenship laws discriminated against Malaysian women by not allowing them to pass on citizenship to their children born abroad.
Advocacy group Family Frontiers and six Malaysian mothers, who had been pursuing the court case, will be appealing the verdict at the Federal Court.
Malaysia’s citizenship laws under the Federal Constitution only specify having a Malaysian “father” as the requirement for an overseas-born person to automatically qualify as a Malaysian citizen.
Based on this citizenship law, the Malaysian government has continued to apply the policy of only allowing Malaysian fathers’ overseas-born children to automatically become Malaysians.
The Malaysian government has not amended the Federal Constitution to also allow Malaysian mothers’ overseas-born children to automatically become Malaysians.
It has also refused to interpret citizenship laws in a way that would allow Malaysian mothers to pass on their citizenship to children born abroad.
