Currently, children born overseas to Malaysian women are not entitled to automatic citizenship as the Federal Constitution only provides for citizenship through fathers.
Stating that today’s announcement is a significant step in recognising the rights of Malaysian women and their overseas-born children, Family Frontiers president Suriani Kempe said the group is looking forward to the smooth passage of the amendment in Parliament and consent from the Conference of Rulers.
“The Cabinet’s decision is an acknowledgement that the government recognises the struggles of Malaysian women and their overseas-born children, and that this discrimination must be rectified as quickly as possible,” she said.
“We are now waiting with bated breath for the amendment to be tabled in Parliament. Only when it is passed can we ‘breathe out in relief’, because thereafter (the affected) mothers will be able to submit their children’s documents to the national registration department (JPN) in order to receive the citizenship certificates.
“But we are certainly on the right track.”
In a joint statement today, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said the amendment is expected to be tabled in the current Dewan Rakyat sitting after fulfilling legal requirements.
The ministers said the proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution is to replace the word “whose father” in Part I and Part II of the Second Schedule with the words “at least one of the parents”.
Last August, an appellate court ruled that children born overseas to Malaysian women were not entitled to automatic citizenship as the Federal Constitution only provided for citizenship through fathers.
In a 2-1 judgment in favour of the government, the appellate court ruled that children born overseas to Malaysian women can be denied citizenship as the word “father” in Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution and its related provisions in the Second Schedule is “clear and unambiguous” and cannot be construed to include mothers.
The ruling overturned a September 2021 decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the government must grant citizenship to children born abroad to Malaysian women as the word “father” in the Second Schedule of the constitution must mean and include mothers.
In the Family Frontiers statement, Esther, one of the mothers affected by the ruling and whose daughter is now eight, said the news was a “lifeline that we can hang on to”.
“I hope the government will stay committed and push it through until it becomes a reality,” she said.
Ling Zhi, another mother of a child who was not given citizenship, described the announcement as a welcome relief after waiting for six years.
“All those countless nights of hope followed by that hope being shattered when the Family Frontiers case got overturned in the Court of Appeal,” she said.
“I am praying hard that this time our hopes, and the hopes and dreams of our children will not be shattered.”