Projek Sama said the home ministry could opt to table a green paper by presenting the proposed constitutional amendments for public feedback and deliberation, or a white paper for the government to support the proposal “with facts and figures”.
It said another option was for the bill to be handed to a parliamentary committee to study the proposed constitutional amendments, as was done for the anti-hopping law and the scrapped Generational End Game (GEG) tobacco bill.
“Projek Sama calls on the chairs of three parliamentary committees, Jonathan Yasin (security), William Leong (human rights, election and institutional reform) and Yeo Bee Yin (women, child and community development), to initiate an inquiry on this bill, with or without the minister’s reference.
“The terms of reference of these panels allow them to examine any relevant bill under the responsibility of the home ministry or which have consequences on the Federal Constitution, human rights and social welfare.
“If referred to a parliamentary committee, all stakeholders can be called to present their submissions, and the public can be kept maximally informed,” it said in a statement.
The bill had been opposed by civil society groups and some backbenchers, especially over the amendments on citizenship for foundlings, stateless children and vulnerable people.
The home ministry later decided to drop these amendments, but NGOs said that glaring weaknesses remained, especially since the new citizenship law would not apply retroactively.
The much-awaited bill, which seeks to grant Malaysian women married to foreign men the right to confer their citizenship on their children, was tabled for a second reading on the last day of the recent Dewan Rakyat meeting but not debated by MPs.
The opposition said the sudden halt to the Dewan Rakyat session before the amendments could be debated was irresponsible.
But Projek Sama commended the government for not rushing the vote on the bill, saying it showed that home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail understood the need for more time to debate the amendments.
“We call on the Cabinet to seize the window of opportunity with the bill’s deferral to present a green paper, white paper or by referring the bill to a parliamentary committee, demonstrating the government’s respect for the Federal Constitution and its commitment to inclusive and serious formulations of laws and policies.”