'Shame on you', Muda tells govt, opposition MPs for citizenship bill nod

In a strongly worded statement, Muda acting president Amira Aisya Abd Aziz chastised MPs who supported the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024 on citizenship rights.

“Shame on you. I hope every night when you sleep, you remember this. That you’re responsible for the difficult future ahead of these children,” she said on Facebook today.

Earlier today, the Dewan Rakyat passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill on citizenship rights via bloc vote.

A total of 70 MPs debated the bill at the second reading stage, followed by a bloc vote after Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s winding-up speech today.

Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul announced that 206 MPs had voted for the bill, while one MP opposed it.

He said 14 MPs were absent, and one - Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (PN-Machang) - was suspended.

The MP who opposed the bill was Muar lawmaker, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

Critics have argued that the bill may deny children of “permanent residents” automatic citizenship.

Other controversial amendments include one to shorten the window for stateless Malaysians to register for citizenship from 21 years to 18 years.

Another amendment could end up nullifying citizenship granted to foreign wives of Malaysian men if the women decide to leave a bad marriage.

READ MORE: KINIGUIDE | How could constitutional changes make more people stateless?

Nothing Madani about bill

Elaborating, Amira (above) said during her formative years, she was taught that the word madani meant progress in every aspect – be it development, thought and character.

However, the Johor assemblyperson said, what happened in the Dewan Rakyat today, specifically the citizenship amendment bill, has nothing to do with the word madani.

“What we witnessed was not a Madani government but a backward administration prone to making things difficult for the people instead of upholding their rights.

“The two-thirds support enjoyed by the government should have been used to defend the destitute but was instead used to sideline the voiceless – women and children – destroying their hopes and rights,” Amira said.

Creating intergenerational statelessness

On a related matter, Syed Saddiq said while he supported the right of mothers who give birth to children overseas to be awarded automatic citizenship, he lamented the government’s move to couple the provision with other regressive amendments.

The former Muda president said the amendments would create an intergenerational statelessness problem in the country.

“Can you imagine there are tens of thousands of Orang Asal born in Malaysia or those in Sabah and Sarawak today, due to bureaucratic barriers and lack of documentation, still denied citizenship and only having red IC?

“But with today’s amendments, even their children will be denied their institutional right to get automatic citizenship.

“Now they have to go through another process of bureaucratic barrier… no longer being awarded citizenship directly via our Constitution,” the former minister lamented.

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