KUALA LUMPUR – The proposed amendment to Part III of the federal constitution involving citizenship issues will be presented in the Conference of Rulers meeting on July 12.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the proposed amendment was done comprehensively by incorporating at least eight proposed amendments including the issue of children born to Malaysian citizen mothers abroad with non-citizen partners.
“If everything goes according to order and with the approval of the rulers, then we will present the matter at the (Dewan Rakyat) sitting at the end of this year.
“This will answer most of the issues raised by the people,” he said when winding up the debate on the motion on the Human Rights Commission’s financial statements and reports in Parliament today.
He said his ministry is currently preparing the proposal and the engagement session is in the final stage in an effort to deal with issues related to citizenship comprehensively.
Meanwhile, regarding the issue of refugees in this country, Saifuddin said the government plans to create its own database to have complete information such as the number, whereabouts, age, and complete personal information of refugees.
He said his ministry will be given the responsibility to collect the refugee data in collaboration with the UN High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR), while for refugees in Sabah, the state’s Chief Minister’s Department will be responsible for doing so.
“According to UNHCR data, there are 185,000 refugees in our country right now. Before, we had an initiative (collecting refugee data) made through private parties with the permission of the Home Ministry, but they were only able to identify 30,000 people and that does not reflect the real situation,” he said.
In this regard, he said he had met with UNHCR on data sharing and once the organisation agreed with the results of the discussion to share data later, the ministry would carry out screening to safeguard national security.
He said the current government policy is to make it easier for refugees to continue living before being transferred to a third country – by making it easier for them to get jobs, education, and health – but it cannot start without the government having a clear refugee database.
Touching on Malaysia’s position on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2023, he said the matter would be announced by the United States tomorrow night, and his ministry would also hold a meeting with representatives of the American embassy to receive the report.
Regarding the issue of public order involving the 3Rs – religion, race and royalty – Saifuddin said the issue could be alleviated if the political arena was not used as a stage for differentiating beliefs between individuals.
“It is better that we reduce or distance ourselves from this kind of politics, we fight in terms of ideas and policies and then we leave it to the wisdom of the people to make the election. We can actually stop this together,” he said.
Earlier, the Dewan Rakyat was delayed for about 15 minutes during the winding-up session which saw MPs from the government and opposition bloc clashing over the 3R issue. – Bernama, June 14, 2023
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