Umno Youth calls for controversial citizenship briefing to be cancelled, not postponed

JOHOR BARU: Umno Youth has called for the citizenship briefing and information programme organised by the Stulang Constituency Service Centre to be cancelled immediately.

Johor Umno Youth chief Noor Azleen Ambros said the programme, if allowed to go on, was a provocation and would incite public unrest.

“The issue of citizenship is stated in the Constitution. It does not need a townhall or briefing for it.

“Any one who wants to apply for citizenship should go through the necessary procedures and channels under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry and National Registration Department.

“Based on the online poster of the event, I am worried that foreign immigrants, who have nothing to do with the event, would rush there,” he told a press conference on Saturday (June 8).

He added that this would also pose risks and unwanted legal issues.

Noor Azleen said Umno Youth was prepared to take the necessary actions including lodging a police report if Stulang assemblyman Andrew Chen still decided to carry on with the programme rather than canceling it.

Earlier on Saturday, Chen announced that the programme has been postponed.

This came after a Facebook user using the name "Nurul Mohamed Yusoff" had questioned a poster for the event which had the title "Program Permohonan Kewarganegaraan (Citizenship Application Programme)".

The poster showed Chen and Penang Citizenship Programme supervisor Yeap Choon Keong.

The poster was also uploaded to TikTok by user @habibhassanali65.

Chen reportedly said that the briefing was initially scheduled for June 30 to address issues of individuals lacking citizenship status or birth certificates due to parental negligence and other reasons.

The National Registration Department had also said it was not involved in the briefing and said, in a statement, that citizenship applications can only be made at the counters of JPN offices in the presence of the applicants themselves.