Stateless children, punished for years through no fault of theirs

 

From A Stateless Child’s Parents

With reference to the letter, “A tale of being born in Malaysia but dying stateless” published on June 21, it should be made known to the public that there are many Malaysians who are stateless in Malaysia.

How could this happen?

Children who are born in Malaysia, raised by Malaysians but are NOT Malaysian.

Such a situation is stressful because these children are born in Malaysia through no fault of theirs but yet they are punished for many years just because they were born out of wedlock or were abandoned.

The futures of these children are blank. Imagine being born in Malaysia, but not being able to prove their existence.

They want to learn, but no school will take them.

They want to contribute to the nation but are not allowed to work.

They cannot have a family because their children could end up stateless too.

It is correct when the home ministry mentions that being born in Malaysia does not automatically make you a Malaysian.

However, our Federal Constitution does not stop there.

Article 14 (1) (b) Second Schedule, Section 1 states as follows:

“Subject to the provisions of Part III of this Constitution, the following persons born on or after Malaysia Day are citizens by operation of law, that is to say: (a) every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least is at time of the birth either a citizen or permanent resident in the Federation; and (e) every person born within the Federation who is not born a citizen of any country otherwise than by virtue of this paragraph.”

Part III Supplementary provisions relating to citizenship, Section 19B states:

“For the purposes of Part I and II of this Schedule, any newborn child found exposed in any place shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown, to have been born there of a mother permanently resident there; and if he is treated by virtue of this section as so born, the date of the finding shall be taken to be the date of the birth.”

With such a provision under the Federal Constitution, why are abandoned children still stateless?

We have adopted a child through legitimate means, yet my child is not a Malaysian.

In our case, my son’s birth certificate shows that he is born in Malaysia, which means the National Registration Department (JPN) or the home ministry accepts the proof given that he was born in Malaysia without doubt “until the contrary is shown”, as mentioned in Part III, Section 19B, as stated above.

Under Section 1(e), my son is not born a citizen of any country except Malaysia.

Despite being in compliance with the Federal Constitution, why does my son now have to wait for citizenship not only for months but for years?

The standard answer given by JPN is “under process”.

When we approached JPN, we were asked to determine who are his biological parents. Where is the logic in that?

He was abandoned by his biological parents. If JPN couldn’t locate them, how could we locate the biological parents?

Our dear prime minister had also promised to process the citizenship application within a year when he was the home minister but this, however, did not follow through. (Please refer to this report – “Home Ministry acts to speed up citizenship application”)

I even had approval from another former home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi but my guess is due to the change of government the decision was withheld.

We are not undocumented immigrants or refugees but we seem to be worse off than them because our children are stateless.

I sincerely hope the current home minister Hamzah Zainudin could look into this matter as many of us Malaysians who have adopted abandoned children or children from orphanages are facing their citizenship issues.

Please be considerate as the future of these children are in your hands. We are not requesting something out of the Federal Constitution. It is within the Federal Constitution. - FMT

A Stateless Child’s Parents are FMT readers.

The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKyY.