Khoo Poay Tiong said the committee – which should be bipartisan in nature – could act as a bridge between the applicants and the home ministry to review applications that were made more than two years ago.

“Whether it is approved or not, it is up to the minister. The committee will merely expedite the process,” the Kota Melaka MP told FMT.

Khoo said the committee must be made up of elected representatives as they could help with applications from their respective constituencies.

“This will speed up the decision (on granting citizenship).”

Earlier, Khoo announced that the applications for citizenship of two children, aged 11 and 12, were approved by the National Registration Department this year, a decade after they had applied for it.

The duo’s citizenship was revoked in 2012 after their parents’ marriage was annulled the same year following the arrest of the marriage registrar by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Their father had married a Vietnamese in 2006.

The couple subsequently applied for their children’s citizenship in 2012, 2014 and 2018.

The children were finally granted citizenship in September this year.