GEORGE TOWN – Only 0.89% of citizenship applications for children born abroad to Malaysian mothers married to foreign spouses have been accepted by the government, said Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh.
He said the percentage is for applications made between 2018 and last month, where out of 2,352 applications received, only 21 had been approved by the government.
“Only less than 1% (of applications) were accepted. Why is this happening? So far, there is no explanation as to why the other applications were not accepted. This is a serious matter.
“It needs to be resolved, and this can only be done through an amendment to the federal constitution,” he said during the online Maternal Rights Forum organised by Penang Women’s Development Corporation today.
The forum also featured Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) children’s commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal and Penang social development and non-Muslim affairs exco Chong Eng.
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Ramkarpal said, currently, there are no reasons the amendments in Article 14 and Part (1) (b) of Second Schedule’s Part II in the federal constitution cannot be done, as this has already been agreed by the majority of MPs during the previous Parliament session.
In fact, he said, the Home Ministry has also agreed to amend the matter, but it would have to go through normal procedures such as a Conference of Rulers meeting prior to drafting a new law.
“There should be no obstacles in this matter, because when I raised this issue in Parliament, it got the support from both parties.
“There is only one thing that needs to be changed, which is the word ‘father’ to the word ‘parent’.
On September 9, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that children born abroad to Malaysian women married to foreigners were automatically entitled to citizenship.
High court judge Akhtar Tahir ruled that the word ‘father’ in the Second Schedule of the federal constitution should mean and include ‘mother’.
However, on September 13, the government decided to file an appeal to overturn the high court’s decision.
Meanwhile, a woman who was also invited to the forum, Atirah Syamimi Azmi, said she will continue to fight to ensure that her second child born in Saudi Arabia obtains Malaysian citizenship.
Atirah, who is married to a Palestinian refugee man, said her first child managed to get citizenship because she was born in Malaysia, but the opposite happened to her second child, who is three years old.
“I live in Saudi Arabia because I work here, and did not have time to return to Malaysia to give birth to my second child for several reasons.
“So, my second child now only depends on a travel pass if I want to return home.
“We face various difficulties such as racism and so on because my second daughter does not have citizenship, and she is recognised as a refugee like her father,” the Pahang-born Atirah said.
She hopes that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is also the Bera MP, could pay special attention to this issue and help mothers who feel marginalised by the law. – The Vibes, November 13, 2021
