AUG 8 — May I firstly offer my sincerest appreciation to YB Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, as it was at YB’s grace that my son is now a Malaysian citizen.
While I married a foreigner, please know I never intended to settle down abroad.
My work gave me an international assignment for my career development, and it was during this period that I gave birth to my child.
It was only when I went to the Malaysian Embassy to register his birth that I was told that Malaysian women, who are married to non-citizen spouses, do not have the same right as Malaysian men in conferring citizenship to their overseas-born children.
I was told I could apply for his citizenship and the results would come in “a few years.”
What followed then was many years of torment: from the mental anguish of not knowing my son’s fate and future (when I always wanted him to be a Malaysian like me) to the many administrative runs and processes to apply and renew his visa to stay with me when I returned to KL.
It was truly saddening that a golden opportunity at work also became a source of such great frustration and exhaustion. But I am thankful that this chapter of mine and my son’s life has finally been put to rest.
Painful as it was to endure, I met a group of mothers in my predicament, who are in even more distressing situations. If I may share certain true situations that I have personally come by:
1. A mother with a non-citizen child who has special needs, who is struggling to afford to pay for private treatment as her child cannot be categorised for public healthcare.
2. Women who were leaving abusive relationships and having to face additional stress as the child’s father would seek custody, citing that the mother has no ‘ability’ to support the child in Malaysia as the child is a non-citizen.
3. A lady who hid her very pregnant body, and risked her life and that of her unborn child so her second child could be Malaysian, to avoid the same circumstances as her first child.
There are many more heartbreaking stories and hence, while my prayers have been answered for my son, it is still my fervent hope that the Government will proceed, without further delay, the constitutional amendment to grant Malaysian women the ability to confer citizenship to their overseas-born children, and that all Members of Parliament in the Dewan Rakyat and the Senators in the Dewan Negara will vote to support it when it is tabled.
Without citizenship, impacted children struggle to access affordable healthcare, education, and many other basic needs. Every woman and her child needs protection and it is with your kindness and political will, that we can allow Malaysia to be a fair and just country for all.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
