Govt's citizenship ruling appeal meant to buy time to amend constitution - Hamzah

 

PARLIAMENT | Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin said the government’s appeal against the High Court ruling which struck out discriminatory practices against Malaysian mothers with overseas-born children is meant to buy time while they look into amending the constitution.

The constitutional amendment will make it easier for Malaysian mothers married to foreigners to give birth overseas, he said.

“The Home Ministry made the decision to appeal and request for a stay of execution (in this case) to buy time to avoid contempt of court and at the same time, we are not going against the Federal Constitution,” Hamzah said in his winding-up speech in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said they decided to amend the constitution because there were two different rulings on similar issues, as there was actually another case – Mahisha Suhaila Abdul Majeed v National Registration Department director and two others – challenging similar provisions where the ruling was in favour of the government.

However, Mahisha had appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals and the hearing is fixed for November 2021, he said.

“After receiving different results, the ministry suggested bringing this matter to get a new government policy to amend the constitution so that it is easier for mothers to give birth overseas even if they are married to foreigners.

“At the same time, this matter needs to get the approval of the Conference of Rulers in line with Article 159(5) of the Federal Constitution,” he said.

Article 159(5) states that any law “making an amendment to Clause (4) of Article 10, any law passed thereunder, the provisions of Part III, Article 38, 63(4), 70, 71(1), 72(4), 152, or 153 or to this clause shall not be passed without the consent of the Conference of Rulers”.

Citizenship laws are contained under Part III of the Federal Constitution.

When asked by Ramkarpal Singh (Harapan-Bukit Gelugor) for reassurance that the government will commit to push through the constitutional amendment, Hamzah said the amendment would have to be consented to by the Conference of Rulers first.

Yesterday, Ramkarpal had pointed out that the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling in the case of Suriani Kempe and six others v the Malaysian government is not binding.

He said this means the situation may revert to the way it used to be if another High Court in the future interpreted the provisions differently.

Instead, he had suggested the government look into amending the constitution to remove the “ambiguity” from the relevant provisions in Article 14 and Section (1)(b) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

Article 14 deals with Malaysian citizenship by operation of law.

Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution is in relation to Malaysian citizenship by operation of law for persons born on or after Malaysia Day.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur had ruled on Sept 9 that the constitutional provisions which only granted automatic citizenship to overseas-born children if the father is Malaysian but not if the mother is Malaysian, was discriminatory.

However, the government had made a filing in the Court of Appeals to quash that ruling, a move that has seen criticism from both sides of the political divide. - Mkini