Court rules against govt, Perak teen to get citizenship after 14-year wait

After 14 years of various procedural and legal hurdles, a Perak-born teenager can finally breathe a sigh of relief after the Federal Court today dismissed an application by the government to commence an appeal to deny her citizenship.

The family’s counsel Annou Xavier confirmed that the apex bench, chaired by the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, dismissed the leave to appeal bid by the Home Ministry secretary-general, the National Registration Department director-general, and the government.

The other members of the Federal Court bench are judges Rhodzariah Bujang and Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah.

“This young girl has been waiting since 2008 when she first made her application for citizenship to the NRD, and has been waiting since May 22, 2019, since she won her case in High Court.

“With today's decision by the Federal Court, we hope the government will issue the citizenship certificate and identity card soon without delay,” the lawyer said of the plight faced by the Form 4 student of a school in Sungai Siput, Perak.

Born in 2006 at the Perak Community Specialist Hospital, the government had refused to recognise the child as a citizen due to her being born to a Malaysian father and a Filipina mother before the marriage was registered.

The girl and her father Lew Yee Hong then mounted a successful legal action which was allowed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on May 2, 2019, and then the Court of Appeal on Feb 15 this year.

‘No longer illegitimate’

In her judgment, High Court judge Faizah Jamaludin reportedly said that the girl was “no longer illegitimate” at the time the Home Ministry rejected her citizenship bid nor when the legal action was filed to quash the authorities’ refusal.

Faizah pointed out, among others, that the girl’s parents had registered their marriage, and that their child was thus legitimised since the date of registration of the marital union on Jan 31, 2008.

Lew had first applied on Feb 20, 2008, for his daughter’s citizenship but received no reply from the authorities.

The father made a second application on Oct 13, 2011, and received a rejection letter over a year later on Dec 17, 2012.

Lew attempted a third application on Sept 9, 2013, but received a rejection nearly three years later on Aug 5, 2016.

It was then that the father and daughter mounted the court challenge on Oct 28, 2016.

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