Harmful amendments remain in proposed move on citizenship in constitution, cautions coalition

THE GOVERNMENT has been told that there are still three planned amendments to the Federal Constitution that will have adverse impacts on stateless children, undocumented Malaysians and foreign spouses of Malaysian men after it decided not to go ahead with two other amendments.

According to the CSO Platform for Reform, these amendments will pose significant challenges, particularly for vulnerable groups within Malaysia.

The coalition of about 70 civil society organisations said that they welcome the announcement made by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail that the ministry has decided not to proceed with two of the proposed amendments on citizenship for foundlings, stateless children and vulnerable groups.

These would have affected Section 19B of Part III of the Second Schedule and Section 1(e) of Part II of the Second Schedule.

However, it is imperative that the remaining “regressive amendments” are re-evaluated and addressed to ensure that Malaysia's citizenship laws uphold principles of inclusivity, fairness, and protection for all individuals, the coalition said in a statement today.

“The Madani Government has missed an opportunity to have more discussions with impacted community leaders before committing to these amendments, more so evident with this recent update,” it said.

“This now provides an opportunity for the government as well as the Home Ministry to engage with more Members of Parliament, legal experts, state agencies, CSOs and grassroots organisations with on-the-ground experiences on this issue prior to it (bill on amendments) even being considered to be tabled.

“By fostering a more inclusive dialogue, we can work together towards implementing reforms that truly reflect the needs and aspirations of our diverse society.”

Child of PR holder, foreign wife affected

Explaining the concerns about the remaining amendments, the coalition pointed to Section 1(a) Part II of the Second Schedule of the constitution.

It said that proposed amendment on this section intends to remove the term “permanently resident”.

“Children of permanent residents (PR), many of whom reside in Sabah who often had their indigenous parents pass their PR status down to them will face the risk of being rendered stateless generationally,” it said.

It also referred to Article 26(2) in relation to Article 15(1).

The amendment on this section intends to replace the excerpt “date of marriage” with “date of obtaining citizenship”, it noted. 

It warned that a foreign wife of a Malaysian man who renounced her original citizenship – as dual citizenship is not recognised in Malaysia – would be at risk of being rendered stateless if the marriage is dissolved within two years of obtaining her Malaysian citizenship.

“This could have detrimental consequences to divorced households and to the foreign wives,” it stressed.

‘Harmful’ reduction in citizenship pathway

Another set of contentious amendments are in Articles 15A and 19(2).

The coalition said that the amendments to these intend to reduce the time frame of one’s pathway to citizenship from 21 years to 18 years.

“This is particularly harmful to all Malaysians as even applications for citizenship by registration would usually take an unusual amount of years amounting to possibly six years, only for them to receive a rejection letter with no specific reasons; adding up to years longer than the 21-year-old limit without consideration to the individual’s wellbeing and financial situation,” it said. – The Vibes, 

The CSO Platform for Reform reiterated its call made last year on the government to provide statistics and demographics on the number of foundlings and children of PR holders who have been granted citizenship in Sabah and Sarawak.

It also repeated its call for inclusive consultation sessions with stateless indigenous people to address their plight, and urged the government to provide the statistics on citizenship status of the Orang Asli community. – The Vibes, March 24, 2024