Girl born to Chinese national gets to be Malaysian

 

The Ipoh High Court declared the girl a legitimate child in 2019 and has now ruled that she is a Malaysian by operation of law.

PETALING JAYA: The High Court in Ipoh has ordered the National Registration Department (JPN) to re-register as Malaysian a six-year-old girl born to a Malaysian father and a Chinese national.

Judge Abdul Wahab Mohamed said the child, who had been listed as non-Malaysian, was born in Ipoh and there was no evidence that she holds a passport of another country.

“Therefore, she qualifies to be a Malaysian by operation of law under Article 14 (1) (b) read together with the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution,” he said in allowing the application by her parents.

Wahab said the court was not required to interpret the meaning of “parent” for the purpose of acquiring citizenship although she was born illegitimate.

In this case, he said, it was clear the child was born in Malaysia. He said the child would be stateless if the application was dismissed.

The judge also said the child must be given citizenship as Malaysia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 .

The convention, he said, was aimed at protecting children from being made stateless.

Wahab also noted that the home ministry did not respond to the parents’ application for citizenship under Article 15A of the Constitution although three different home ministers had been appointed over the last four years.

The girl, whose identity has been withheld, was born on June 24, 2016 but was not granted citizenship as her parents were not married at the time.

The couple, in their late 30s, registered their marriage legally at JPN in Putrajaya three months after the child was born and have been applying for her citizenship since 2017.

In September 2019, the High Court in Ipoh declared the girl to be a legitimate child of her parents as Malaysian law allows non-Muslim couples to legitimise children by marrying later. The parents had obtained DNA results proving the girl was their biological child.

The parents filed an originating summons in December 2019 as her status in the birth certificate is stated as non-Malaysian.

The parents had also written to the home minister in 2017 to obtain citizenship for the child but there was no reply .

Lead counsel Ong Yu Shin said today’s ruling was a humanitarian and progressive judgment. Others in Ong’s legal team were Nicholas Kow and Andy Ooi Keng Liang

Senior federal counsel Ashyraf Ashyari Kamaruzaman represented JPN and the government. - FMT