A PKR lawmaker has come to the defence of embattled Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who has been under fire over plans to amend citizenship laws.
Taking to social media, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin claimed that contrary to criticisms, Saifuddin had shown a strong resolve to resolve statelessness.
"Let's be frank, no one will love the home minister, this position will always be 'unpopular'. But let's be fair to Saifuddin.
"In short 15 months, he has achieved many successes no other ex-home minister has achieved," he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Citing a statistic involving statelessness, Sim said Saifuddin has managed to resolve 35,000 out of 59,000 cases, which is more than half of the total cases.
Sim was quoting a statistic that was read by Saifuddin during the latter’s winding up speech in Dewan Rakyat on Monday.
Sim also said Saifuddin managed to oversee the significant amendment of citizenship for babies born to overseas Malaysian mothers.
"(To) convince the Conference of Rulers, (and the) Sabah and Sarawak state governments to support constitutional reforms on citizenship. (It’s an) amazing achievement.
"To say Saifuddin is unfit is simply unfair. Just compare him to his predecessors, you will see stark difference," the Bayan Baru MP added.
Sim said this in response to an opinion piece published by Malaysiakini today, which called Saifuddin unfit to be home minister.
Yesterday, Suhakam said the Home Ministry did not provide any empirical data to back its proposed citizenship law amendments
One particularly contentious amendment would remove automatic citizenship for foundlings. With that, the power to grant citizenship would be transferred from the Federal Constitution to the home minister.
Saifuddin has faced heavy backlash over the ministry's imminent amendments on citizenship, which critics say are regressive and would actually lead to more statelessness.
Defending his proposal, the minister claimed it was to prevent abuse by migrants seeking automatic citizenship for their babies born by abandoning them in government hospitals.
However, critics hit back and said that Saifuddin’s explanation was contradictory and a misinterpretation of the constitutional provision on foundlings. - Mkini
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