Dewan Rakyat unanimously passes amendments to citizenship law, surpassing two-thirds majority

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024, which introduces significant changes to Malaysia’s citizenship laws, was unanimously passed today in the Dewan Rakyat, exceeding the required two-thirds majority.

Voting for the Bill was conducted via a bloc vote, with Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul allocating three minutes for the process.

As an amendment to the Federal Constitution, the Bill required the support of two-thirds of MPs in the Dewan Rakyat to pass, meaning a minimum of 148 out of 222 MPs needed to vote in favour. However, a total of 206 MPs voted in support of the Bill.

Following the amendments today, children born abroad to Malaysian women with foreign spouses would now qualify for automatic citizenship, as was already the case for children of Malaysian men.

This amendment comes on the heels of a string of court cases brought by the Family Frontiers Organisation, Suriani Kempe, and six other women, against the Malaysian government in 2021.

Another amendment to Article 15A will now bring the age limit for citizenship applications down from 21 years’ old to 18, to be consistent with the lowered voting age as well as the definition of a minor in the Child Act 2001.

Under Section 1(b) of the Bill, parents must now register their overseas born children within a year of the child’s birth. Previously, this was not the case.

As part of what is deemed to be a “control mechanism”, the Bill now stipulates that children born abroad will be considered for citizenship according to the appropriate generation limit.

Children of permanent resident (PR) parents, meanwhile, will be granted citizenship according to the original citizenship of the parents.

Previously, children born to parents who are Malaysian PRs, automatically qualified for Malaysian citizenship by operation of law.

Foreign women who became Malaysians through marriage, meanwhile, would have their status revoked, if their marriage were to be dissolved within two years of them gaining citizenship.

The limit was previously two years from the date of marriage. Additionally, these women would be required to have adequate Malay language knowledge, as part of her application for citizenship.

The Bill will now contain a new section — Section 3 which will be listed into Part II of the Second Schedule — to require anyone under the age of 18 who had acquired Malaysian citizenship by operation of law — due to Sections 1(b) or 1(c) where they were born abroad and have at least one Malaysian parent — to take an oath (to be known as the “Oath of Renunciation, Loyalty and Allegiance” under another new amendment in the First Schedule) when they turn 18.

The Bill also proposes to add in a new clause to Article 18, by introducing Article 18(1A), where a person under the age of 18 who is a Malaysian citizen by registration is required to take the oath in the First Schedule upon turning 18. Failure to do so within 48 months of turning 18 resulting in this person ceasing to be a Malaysian citizen.

Following the amendments, any newborn child found abandoned without protection in any place shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been born in that place and the mother to be a citizen.