Human rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has expressed shock that the proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution does not give automatic citizenship to children who were born overseas to Malaysian mothers before that. LFL adviser N Surendran said the tabling of the Bill is to resolve the long-standing problem of Malaysian citizenship for these children.

KUALA LUMPUR (March 25): Human rights group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has expressed shock that the proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution addressing automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers does not have a retrospective effect.

The main justification given by the government for the tabling of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday, is to resolve the long-standing problem of Malaysian citizenship for children born to Malaysian mothers overseas, noted LFL adviser N Surendran in a statement.

"By virtue of Clause 11 of the Bill, the necessary amendment has been proposed by substituting the words 'of whose parents one at least' into paragraph (b) of Part II of 2nd Schedule. This would entitle children born overseas to Malaysian mothers to receive Malaysian citizenship by operation of law.

"However, to our shock and surprise, by Clause 12(1) of the Bill, the new amendments will not affect the citizenship status of those children who were born prior to the coming into effect of the Act," said Surendran.

The effect of this clause, he said, is that the thousands of existing children born to Malaysian mothers overseas will not receive the benefit of the new amendment.

"They will remain stateless as they have been all this while," he said. "As before, they can only apply to the government for citizenship by registration, which is subject to the absolute discretion of the home minister."

Surendran said that it was the failure or refusal of the Home Ministry to grant citizenship to them all this while that led to the long campaign to amend Section 1(b).

But now these stateless children will be back at square one "after having been given false hope that their citizenship woes would be resolved by constitutional amendment".

Surendran said LFL strongly urges the government to remove the restriction in Clause 12(1) from the Bill to enable all those born to Malaysian mothers overseas to receive citizenship.

“To maintain Clause 12(1) in the Bill would be a betrayal of the repeated promises of government leaders including the prime minister, that their citizenship problems would be resolved by amendments to the constitution,” he added.