Home minister to meet rulers council on citizenship amendments

The Home Ministry is expected to meet the Conference of Rulers today over the citizenship law amendments bill.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he will be accompanied by the Suhakam chairperson to the palace soon.

“Even today, the ministry was invited to discuss with the Conference of Rulers, with Suhakam, on a few provisions to be scrutinised,” he said in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Saifuddin also confirmed that the second and third reading of the amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming session in October this year, where the 2025 budget is expected to be tabled.

Saifuddin previously wanted the bill to be debated and passed in March it was postponed at the last minute.

This was amid pushback against provisions in the bill that activists said could cause more Malaysians to become stateless.

Meanwhile, commenting on whether the ministry had considered Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance’s (MCRA) counter-proposal, Saifuddin said that he considered the meeting as a “positive” development to improve the citizenship law.

“It’s very positive but I can’t give more details,” he said.

Two days ago, MCRA, through the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas - one of the alliance’s members - handed the counter-proposal personally to Saifuddin.

Among the recommendations in the proposal are:

• Make the provision granting Malaysian mothers the right to pass down citizenship to overseas-born children retroactive. This would be a transitional measure for those born before the amendments come into force.

• Revert the citizenship registration age limit back to 21 instead of the proposed 18, or

• Provide a three-year transition period for citizenship registrations before the new 18-year age limit is imposed and a decision must be made on applications within one year, with clear reasons provided for rejections.

• Add safeguards so the government can’t remove a foreign-born woman’s citizenship if her marriage to a Malaysian ends if they have been married for more than two years, have children, or if removing the woman’s citizenship would render her stateless.

• Retain the right for children of certain permanent residents to get citizenship, namely those who are Orang Asli, Orang Asal, or were born in Malaysia. Foreign permanent residents would be excluded under the counter-proposal.

The counter-proposal was launched last Thursday and the MCRA plans to submit it to all lawmakers including Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. - Mkini