One step forward, several steps back

THE Government must be congratulated for agreeing to amend the law to grant citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers. The proposed amendment will consign to the dustbin of history the intolerable gender discrimination between Malaysian men and women if their children are born abroad.

As the law stands, if a child is born overseas to a Malaysian father and a foreign wife, the child is eligible to inherit the father's Malaysian citizenship. But if a Malaysian mother, in a lawful marriage with a foreigner, gives birth overseas to a child from the foreign father, our law disowns the child and he/she has to follow the foreign father's citizenship.