PETALING JAYA: Five MPs have submitted motions ahead of the Dewan Rakyat meeting next month calling for constitutional amendments to allow citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who is also chairman of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Women and Children Affairs and Social Development, was among four MPs who had filed their respective Private Member’s Bill on the issue and want the matter expedited.
“For this motion to be fast-tracked in full force, I believe all MPs must put in Private Member’s Bills to bring this to fruition”,” she told The Star when contacted yesterday.
She was asked whether she expects the motion to be fast-tracked to the first week when the Dewan Rakyat meets in light of talk that Parliament could be dissolved after Budget 2023 is passed, paving the way for the general election.
Azalina said she filed her motion with Dewan Rakyat secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin last Thursday, which seeks to amend Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution, by inserting the words “or mother” after “father” in Clause (1)(b) and Clause (1)(c).
The four other MPs who also filed motions on the issue were Fuziah Salleh (PH-Kuantan), Ahmad Fahmi Mohamed Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai), Alice Lau (PH-Lanang) and Hannah Yeoh (PH-Segambut).
When contacted yesterday, Lau said the proposed amendment, if carried out, would allow children born to Malaysian mothers abroad to be granted Malaysian citizenship in line with Article 14 of the Constitution.
“We will not give up fighting even if only one day is left (of the Dewan Rakyat proceeding).
“We will always do what we can for the people,” she said.
Last September, the High Court ruled that Malaysian women have the same right as Malaysian men to confer automatic citizenship on their overseas-born children.
The decision was, however, overturned by the Court of Appeal on Aug 5 this year.
In a majority ruling, the court held that the constitutional provision referred to the biological father and could not be extended to include the mother or parents.
It was up to Parliament, not the court, to rewrite the Constitution, the judges said.
There have been recent calls by civil society for the law to be amended in favour of children of Malaysian mothers born abroad to be given citizenship.
The Dewan Rakyat is set to convene on Oct 3 with the Budget 2023 scheduled to be tabled on Oct 7.
Meanwhile, Association of Family Support and Welfare Selangor and Kuala Lumpur president Suriani Kempe said that citizenship cases had attracted the attention and support of a vast number of Malaysians.
She noted that the effort by MPs to get the law amended is yet another demonstration of the widespread support that children of Malaysian mothers are not denied their rights any longer.
“We urge the government to listen to the people; uplift their calls for Malaysian women to have equal rights to confer citizenship to their children, as do Malaysian men,” she said when contacted.
