Saifuddin receives citizenship amendments proposal

A counter-proposal to address flaws in the government’s planned citizenship amendments has been submitted to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance (MCRA)’s counter-proposal was handed to the minister yesterday by the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRAA) - one of the alliance’s members.

Among the recommendations in the proposal are:

• Make the provision granting Malaysian mothers the right to pass down citizenship to overseas-born children retroactive. This would be a transitional measure for those born before the amendments come into force.

• Revert the citizenship registration age limit back to 21 instead of the proposed 18, or

• Provide a three-year transition period for citizenship registrations before the new 18-year age limit is imposed, and a decision must be made on applications within one year, with clear reasons provided for rejections.

• Add safeguards so the government can’t remove a foreign-born woman’s citizenship if her marriage to a Malaysian ends, if they have been married for more than two years, have children, or if removing the woman’s citizenship would render her stateless.

• Retain the right for children of certain permanent residents to get citizenship, namely those who are Orang Asli, Orang Asal, or were born in Malaysia. Foreign permanent residents would be excluded under the counter-proposal.

The proposal was launched last Thursday, and the MCRA plans to submit it to all lawmakers including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Saifuddin previously wanted the bill to be debated and passed in March, but the debate was postponed at the last minute.

This was amid pushback against provisions in the bill that activists said could cause more Malaysians to become stateless.

The amendments are currently on a waitlist to be debated in the Dewan Rakyat, but it is unclear if that debate will happen in the current Parliament session.

The DHRAA on Facebook yesterday said it has asked Saifuddin to ensure that civil society groups are included in any task force dealing with statelessness.

It also thanked the home minister and ministry officers for their work dealing with statelessness, with some 15,000 citizenship applications approved thus far.

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