Mutual respect: Saifuddin Nasution is calling for more understanding among those pushing hard against some of the proposed amendments to the citizenship laws. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail says he is all for resolving the issue of stateless children, but calls for more understanding among those pushing hard against some of the proposed amendments to the citizenship laws.
While he understands that it is an emotional issue for many, he lamented that some of the brickbats levelled against him were uncalled for.
The minister has come under fire from human rights activists over some of the proposed amendments to the citizenship laws, as they claimed that the proposed changes would exacerbate the issue of stateless children.
“My approach in resolving the issue of stateless children is to facilitate the applicants, not to punish them.
“I am all for engaging with NGOs to seek a win-win solution to the issue of stateless children and foundlings.
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“However, it must be a two-way conversation with both sides willing to listen to each other.
“In the past 11 months, I have approved about 11,000 citizenships for the stateless.
“Please do not say that I am not doing my part as Home Minister to resolve the issue of statelessness,” he said yesterday.
Saifuddin Nasution said the amendments were approved by the Conference of Rulers and they had given the green light for them to be tabled in Parliament.
“The Home Ministry is not working in silos, the officers at the ministry are guided by the Federal Constitution on the provisions for citizenships.
“Those who are criticising me and the government should bear in mind that the 150,000 cases on my table right now did not come overnight but were inherited from previous governments,” he added.
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The government announced in June that it would be tabling amendments to the citizenship laws to enable children born overseas to Malaysian mothers to be conferred citizenship.
It also planned to amend Section 1(e), Part II, Second Schedule, detailing who is a citizen by operation of the law; Section 19(b) of Part III of the Second Schedule, providing additional guidance of who is a citizen by operation of the law; Section 1(a), Part II, Second Schedule, detailing who is a citizen by operation of the law; Article 15A; and Article 26(2) which lists conditions a foreign wife may be deprived of citizenship.
The proposed changes to the above laws have been opposed by civil society groups which said they would create another class of stateless children.
In Kuching, state Women, Children and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said Sarawak has its own state-federal special committee on citizenships, which was endorsed by Saifuddin Nasution.
She said the committee speeds up the bureaucracy on these matters between Kuching and Putrajaya.
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As most of the cases of stateless children in Sarawak fall under Article 15A, Fatimah said that she is not perturbed by the amendment to the section to change the age bracket from “twenty-one years” to “eighteen years”.
“Our stateless children are mainly children born before the parents are properly married and registered, whereby the father is Malaysian citizen from Sarawak and the mother is a foreigner.
“Based on our existing laws, the child in these particular cases will assume the citizenship of the mother (foreigner) and in some cases ‘undecided status’. Application for citizenship will be under 15A.
“As for the change in age bracket, 18 is the age based on the definition of ‘child’. Above the age of 18, the individual is considered as an adult,” she said.
