KUALA LUMPUR – The cabinet has agreed to bring constitutional amendments relating to the citizenship rights of children born abroad to Parliament this month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told Malaysians in Germany.
He assured concerned parents there that the rights of children born abroad was being addressed by his government when speaking at a breaking-of-fast event with Malaysians in Berlin, Bernama reports.
He said the cabinet had agreed to bring an amendment to Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution so that the word “parent,” which currently only means father, will mean both father and mother.
This will ensure that children born abroad to Malaysian mothers married to foreign spouses are granted citizenship rights, Anwar said. However, if the overseas-born child has a Malaysian father, the child is allowed Malaysian citizenship.
The prime minister was answering a question from a Malaysian woman at the event, who spoke of her two children who could not obtain Malaysian citizenship.
“Please follow developments at home… your question has been overtaken by events. Cabinet has agreed to bring this to Parliament this month,” he said.
“We know that at the moment, parent is defined as father. We will amend it so that parent will mean father and mother,” he added.
Yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the amendments would be tabled later in this Dewan Rakyat session.
Besides the amendment on the word “parent”, other amendments will no longer give citizenship by operation of law, or automatically, to abandoned children and foundlings, and babies born to parents whose marriages are not registered.
Children’s rights activists, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission and a few government MPs have stated their objections of these amendments which are seen as worsening statelessness, and called on the government to withdraw them.
However, Saifuddin has said he is confident the proposed constitutional amendments will be passed with the two-thirds majority required to change the constitution. – March 13, 2024