He said a special committee set up to study the matter had agreed to accept the eight suggestions but no decision had been made so far as it would have to go through other processes at various stages.

The suggestions include lowering the age limit from 21 to 18 for someone to renounce their citizenship.

Saifuddin said the change was necessary once citizenship was provided for overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers and foreign fathers.

“When the amendment is made and the law takes effect, a child will be a Malaysian citizen and also have citizenship to another country because of his father, so the child would have dual nationalities.

“But our Federal Constitution does not allow dual nationalities, so when does he have to renounce? Right now, the age set is 21, we are suggesting to reduce it to 18 so that it’s the same as the voting age.

“This will involve several suggested amendments to the constitution and related Acts, and will need to be coordinated,” he told reporters after attending a town hall event at Universiti Utara Malaysia here today.

The suggestions would be agreed at the ministry and Cabinet levels before being presented to the Conference of Rulers and if they give their consent, it will then be tabled in Parliament, hopefully at the session at the year’s end.

In February, the Cabinet was reported to have agreed to amend the constitution to provide citizenship to children born abroad by Malaysian mothers married to foreign nationals.

‘Don’t make jokes about tragedy’

At the town hall event, Saifuddin described as “insensitive and offensive” the recent remarks by Singapore-born comedian Jocelyn Chia about Malaysia and the MH370 tragedy.

He said no sane and rational human being could accept jokes that are derogatory, insulting and mocking as the woman did, even in the name of freedom of speech.

“We hope it is an isolated case,” he said, adding that events relating to the loss of life and grief should not be made into a joke.