Wan Junaidi said he had witnessed for himself how the citizenship problem had affected their lives, adding that he, too, could not take what these mothers were enduring.

“I want to tell these mothers who meet me, please, enough. At the end of the day, it is not only you who cry. I cry too,” he said at a Keluarga Malaysia symposium earlier today.

The minister said many steps were required in the process to amend the Federal Constitution and provide automatic citizenship to overseas-born children of Malaysian women.

These amendments were still being studied. “We need to examine the types of amendment required. It is not as easy as many claim — not just a matter of amending one word (father).”

He reiterated to FMT that Putrajaya must wait until the Federal Court decides on an appeal filed by affected mothers whose suit to obtain citizenship for their children was rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The court had overturned a ruling by the High Court in September that a constitutional provision for citizenship derived from Malaysian fathers should be extended to cover mothers or either parent.

However, the Court of Appeal on Aug 5 held that the constitutional provision referred only to the biological father. It was up to Parliament, not the court, to rewrite the constitution, the judges said.

Earlier today, Attorney-General Idrus Harun said the citizenship problem could be resolved by the government amending the Federal Constitution.