KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — The current federal government is effectively going to “war” with Malaysia-born children with its plan to push forward with changes to citizenship laws in the Federal Constitution as it would remove the existing rights of such children to be Malaysian citizens, former Malaysian Bar president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said today.
In a press conference to highlight the plight of four Malaysia-born women who are still stateless, Ambiga highlighted the resulting unfairness to them if such citizenship law changes are passed in Parliament.
Ambiga referred to one of the government's planned citizenship amendments — dubbed regressive by civil society — which would replace citizenship “by operation of law”, with citizenship by “registration”.
Under existing citizenship laws under the Federal Constitution, those born in Malaysia and who have not acquired citizenship of any country within a year of their birth are Malaysians by “operation of law” or in other words, they are entitled to be Malaysians, which would protect them from becoming stateless. Citizenship by registration would require these Malaysia-born individuals to apply to be registered by the government.
Ambiga highlighted the risk that would arise from the government's planned amendment to the Federal Constitution, as it would result in government officers being the ones to decide at their discretion who would be registered as a Malaysian, instead of currently where they would be entitled to citizenship as a right.
“The Federal Constitution used the words 'operation of law', which means no individual can interfere with that.
“When they say they are going to remove the words 'operation of law', immediately your antenna should go up and quiz them. Because what they are doing is taking away a fundamental provision in our citizenship laws. What they are saying is, 'I will decide, our office will decide who becomes a citizen'. Please quiz them why are you taking away such a basic citizenship right under citizenship laws. So they are messing with the constitution," the lawyer said.
“They are giving pathetic reasons. This is a war on children by this government, this government is doing it. I'm horrified, and shame on Pakatan Harapan doing this because you are going after children," she said, questioning what stateless children or their parents had done wrong for them to be deprived of Malaysian citizenship when the Federal Constitution states that they are entitled to citizenship.
Ambiga said the government's planned amendments would make it “easier” to reject Malaysian citizenship to those who are entitled under the Federal Constitution to be citizens, stressing the seriousness of the planned amendments that would remove the word "operation of law".
“They think they can just change whatever they want and in a flash remove citizenship from so many who deserve it. That must be stopped, I think this is really taking the cake. We are waiting for other reforms and what are they doing? They're going after babies, going after kids," she said.
She also referred to another of the government's planned regressive citizenship amendments, which would affect Malaysia-born foundlings (babies who were abandoned by their parents and found) by removing the words “operation of law” and putting them under the requirement of “registration” for their citizenship.
Ambiga also expressed shock at the reasons that have been given by the government to justify its proposed regressive amendments to citizenship laws, saying that it indicates a lack of understanding of the Federal Constitution.
“I cannot understand how any of our MPs in all honesty can sit there and allow this government to mess with citizenship rights. You are not messing with a statute, amending a statute is a different thing. You are messing with this, the Federal Constitution, and on a key provision in the Constitution," she said, referring to the Federal Constitution the highest law of the country.
“So far none of the answers they have given have any merits whatsoever. It proves to me they don't know what they are talking about, that's why they hide behind those words, thinking they can scare people using xenophobic language into agreeing to this,” she said of the justifications given by the government.
“Really at the end of the day, we have so many other reforms that need happening, and they want to mess with the Constitution,” she said.
“So I strongly urge this government, to withdraw these ridiculous amendments. And I encourage MPs to defeat — they should all vote with conscience, and defeat these amendments, get on with the job with reforming," she said, having also urged all MPs in Malaysia to understand the importance of keeping the existing citizenship law provisions in the Federal Constitution.
Under the current Dewan Rakyat meeting, March 18 (today) to March 27 (next Wednesday) are scheduled for the government to table its Bills or planned new laws or legal amendments for MPs to vote on.
The government's planned citizenship amendments have yet to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, and Singapore news outlet Straits Times had last Saturday reported that the Bill was initially expected to be presented on March 25.
Human rights group Lawyers for Liberty adviser N. Surendran highlighted the urgency of the four stateless women's case, as their existing rights to Malaysian citizenship — which the government has refused to recognise—- would be taken away if the new law containing the regressive citizenship amendments are passed.
“They are just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more like our four friends,” he said.
Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) adviser Latheefa Koya said the rights group is currently handling 15 pending stateless cases in court, and that LFL is already handling hundreds more of such cases and that the government's planned regressive amendments would worsen the statelessness problem as more would become stateless.
“As we speak, every day we have a walk-in or email on cases, actually too many for use, we can't manage even with the unamended Constitution. We are already dealing with the stateless issue, so you can imagine when it's amended, how many will fall out of that category, that's why we say it compounds the statelessness issue,” she said.
Ambiga, Surendran and Latheefa are representing the four stateless women — aged 21, 22, 29 and 41 according to their birth year — who were born in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur and who are still seeking to be recognised as Malaysians.
Previously, lawyer Sharmila Sekaran, who also chairs the child rights advocacy group Voice of the Children, had cautioned that the government's planned regressive citizenship amendments means locally-born children would have their existing rights to automatically be citizens taken away, and will instead result in “Little Napoleons” in the civil service having the power to decide if they should be registered as Malaysians.
Read here for Malay Mail's brief summary of the five proposed regressive amendments and their effect.
