Being born out of wedlock is no reason to deny citizenship, says Hadi

KUALA LUMPUR: Children out of wedlock should not be denied their rights to citizenship if either parent is a Malaysian, as it is the duty of the government to guide them, says PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.

The Marang MP said that although the parents have sinned, children out of wedlock were innocent and should not be punished for their parents' crimes.

He said this in reply to a question addressing the issue of stateless children born in Malaysia out of wedlock.

Abdul Hadi said this at a dialogue session titled "Facing the challenges of Globalised Media Today" at a hotel here on Tuesday (Feb 28).

"The child (out of wedlock) is not a sinner. The one who sinned is the man and the woman who had a child out of wedlock. We should not blame the child out of wedlock for what is not his or her sin. The government have the duty to educate these children to be good children," said Abdul Hadi.

Stateless children cannot attend national schools without Malaysian citizenship.

"The man and the woman who had the affair should repent for their sins - but the child is not at fault. We must remember this," said Abdul Hadi.

The issue of citizenship for children whose either parent is a Malaysian has been raised many times over the years.

On Feb 17, the government had stated that the Cabinet had agreed with the proposal to amend the Federal Constitution to enable children born abroad to Malaysian mothers to gain automatic Malaysian citizenship.