“The plight of stateless children in Malaysia is ‘appalling’ while the government’s indifference to it is ‘shameful’.
“The government has shown no interest or political will to resolve this matter.
“It is shameful that stateless children have to file legal actions and be dragged through a series of appeals simply to obtain the basic right of citizenship.
“Whilst the legal process must take its course, I am appalled that large numbers of stateless Malaysian children are still without this basic right.”
- Anwar Ibrahim from behind the walls of Sungai Buloh prison, Sept 12, 2017.
Triggered by the scandalous granting of “instant” citizenship to seven foreign footballers last year, I had raised the issue of Malaysians who were born in this country being compelled to seek redress through the legal system for their citizenship.
They included border scouts who worked alongside our armed forces personnel during the Confrontation in the 60s.
For various reasons, some including the indifferent attitude of the authorities, many Malaysians have spent time, effort, and money in their bid to prove that they have been wronged and are entitled to be citizens. However, not all have been successful.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal unanimously decided that two persons born in Malaysia were not entitled to be Malaysian citizens under the Federal Constitution, as their Malaysian fathers were not married to their non-Malaysian mothers when they were born.
Court of Appeal judge Azhahari Kamal Ramli, who chaired a three-judge panel, said the High Court was correct in rejecting their bid to be recognised as Malaysians.
The court held that the Kuala Lumpur-born woman (identified only as J) had to follow her Indonesian mother’s citizenship, and that the man born in Teluk Intan, Perak (identified only as D) had to follow his Filipino mother’s citizenship.
Both J’s and D’s mothers disappeared from their lives when they were young. Both studied and lived in Malaysia their whole lives, raised by their Malaysian fathers.
On Wednesday, Velmurugan, a 38-year-old man born in an estate in Tanjung Malim, Perak, lost his citizenship bid at the appellate court.
He argued that his mother was born in Malaysia before Merdeka, his grandmother was born in Perak, and three of his mother’s siblings are already registered as Malaysians.
Yet the court decided he was not entitled to citizenship, citing his mother’s undetermined status at the time of his birth.
These decisions raise fundamental questions about how the National Registration Department (NRD) processes citizenship applications.
FAM debacle
In the case of the footballers, NRD director-general Badrul Hisham Alias declared to the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) that the players had provided documents with their grandparents’ details.
NRD claimed to have verified these records, despite admitting that original handwritten birth records could not be retrieved. Based on this “evidence”, the NRD issued naturalisation certificates.
But the players themselves admitted they spoke no Malay and had arrived only weeks before being granted citizenship.
Fifa’s investigation later uncovered that the documents were forged, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld this finding. Not one of the players’ grandparents was born in Malaysia.
Fifa noted: “The NRD confirmed that the Malaysian authorities never received the original birth certificates. Instead, the NRD issued its own copies based on secondary information and foreign documents from Argentina, Brazil, and Spain.
“The NRD further admitted that it could not retrieve the original handwritten records and, therefore, issued official copies based on evidence that a birth had occurred.
“This admission, so finds the committee, indicates that the Malaysian government’s validation process may not have been based on original documents, which calls into question the thoroughness of FAM’s verification process.”
Two weeks ago, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission concluded that approvals for the players were rushed, interviews skipped, and the Malay language test mishandled.
Lack of compassion
The court decisions and the course of events related to the foreign footballers raise a fundamental question: if the NRD can bend - if not snap - the law using forged documents, shouldn’t it show compassion to those who come with clean hands?
All three Malaysians were born, bred, and educated here. They speak Malay, they meet the minimum residential period, and they submitted genuine, verified documents. Yet their applications were rejected, forcing them into the courts.
In a previous column, I noted: “Isn’t it more appalling that the process can be fast-tracked selectively? If the NRD can go the extra mile to trace the ancestry of foreign- born footballers, why can’t the same be done for the nation’s own children?”
So, what happened to those prophetic words uttered nine years ago from Sungai Buloh? Were they just sound bites for political expediency, many of which remain just remnants of the promised reformasi?
Citizenship is not a privilege to be traded for sporting glory; it is a birthright for those who have no other home.
When forged papers from foreigners are enough to open the door, but authentic documents from Malaysians are dismissed, the system is not just flawed - it is complicit in injustice.
The NRD cannot continue to operate with double standards: fast-tracking fraud while stonewalling legitimacy. Every rejection of a rightful Malaysian is a betrayal of the Constitution’s promise of equality, and every approval of a falsified claim is an insult to the nation’s integrity.
If Malaysia is serious about justice, then the law must serve its people, not undermine them. Until the NRD is held accountable and the law is amended, citizenship will remain a game rigged against the very Malaysians it was meant to protect.
Malaysia’s citizenship laws are no longer fit for purpose. The clause which denies paternal lineage to children born out of wedlock is a relic of another era.
Are the offspring of couples who cohabited without being legally married being treated as outcasts, although it was no fault of theirs?
Malaysia cannot continue to operate with laws and practices that reward deception while punishing legitimacy.
The clause which denies paternal lineage to children born out of wedlock is outdated, unjust, and condemns children to statelessness despite being born, raised, and educated here. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN is a veteran journalist who strives to uphold the ethos of civil rights leader John Lewis: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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