Tabling of citizenship amendment for overseas-born kids might be in June

The government is expected to table the amendment granting Malaysian women married to foreigners the right to confer citizenship on their children born abroad only in June’s parliamentary sitting.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said said the likelihood of the bill being tabled in the current parliamentary sitting is low.

The current parliamentary sitting is scheduled to run from Feb 13 to April 4 and a large chunk of that time is dedicated to the debates on the royal address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as well as Budget 2023.

Only four days were set for the tabling and debate of other government bills towards the end of this sitting.

“The bill to amend the Constitution is expected to be tabled during the next sitting since there are some issues to be further deliberated, especially the issue of dual citizenship.

“I hope we can make it for the June sitting. A cabinet committee on the citizenship issue has been formed and is currently deliberating on issues pertaining to citizenship in preparation for the next sitting,” Azalina said, as reported by the Malay Mail today.

The June sitting is expected to focus solely on the tabling and debate of government bills.

Azalina also said the bill on the proposed amendments to the Constitution is ready in both languages, “pending sorting the implementation issues”.

As the bill would propose making changes to citizenship provisions in the Federal Constitution, she said it would require the consent of the Conference of Rulers.

“Yes, it is needed by virtue of Article 159 of the Federal Constitution. The government will bring it to the Conference of Rulers after finalising solutions on the implementation issues,” she said.

Beyond govt powers

Last August, then-law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said amending the Federal Constitution to provide citizenship to overseas-born children through their Malaysian mothers was beyond the powers of the government.

This is because a constitutional amendment would need the involvement of the Conference of Rulers, he said, adding that the government at the time would only decide on its next course of action once a Federal Court ruling is made on the matter.

On Feb 17, Azalina and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail issued a joint statement saying the cabinet has agreed to amend the Constitution regarding this issue.

“The proposed amendments to the Constitution pertain to changing the term ‘father’ in Part I and II of the Second Schedule with the term ‘at least one of the parents’ to allow Malaysian mothers to get their parental rights according to the constitution,” read the statement.

Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution lays out the rules by which a person born after Malaysia Day can or cannot become a citizen of Malaysia.

The ministers also said amendments pertaining to Part III of the Constitution, which deals with the acquisition of citizenship, will be scrutinised by a committee under the Home Ministry.

“After the findings are finalised, they will be presented to the cabinet with feedback from the stakeholders,” they said at the time.

'Minimum 10k citizenship applications to be decided by year end'

Citizenship rules: Address other kids’ statelessness issues too – Suhakam

'Proposed citizenship rule amendment proves govt upholds gender equality'

COMMENT | Citizenship rules amendments: Could women now be equal to men?

Family Frontiers welcomes move to amend citizenship rules

New citizenship changes expected to have huge impact on Home Ministry

Cabinet agrees to amend Constitution's citizenship rules