PETALING JAYA: Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the application period for citizenship was shortened when he took over the ministry, dismissing criticisms over the proposed amendment to citizenship laws, which the Cabinet had endorsed.
Saifuddin said that under the current system, the ministry would decide on an applicant’s citizenship within a year, Malaysiakini reported.
He said only 14,000 citizenship applications by foundlings await approval, which will be decided upon before Dec 31.
He acknowledged that the main issue in the citizenship applications was the long period to obtain the result.
“The problem all this time is that applicants have to wait several years,” he was quoted as saying.
Saifuddin said he personally decided on more than 11,500 applications last year.
The National Registration Department (NRD) had previously come under fire for bureaucracy and lengthy approval times.
Last night, human rights commission Suhakam criticised the bureaucracy and unresponsive attitude of the department, which it said represented a major hurdle towards citizenship applications for stateless children.
A proposed amendment requiring any person to register foundlings within one year “is regressive for the innocent child as it deprives them of citizenship due to parental or other third-party neglect”, Suhakam said.
DAP’s Ramkarpal Singh, meanwhile, was reported to have labelled the proposed amendments, especially regarding foundlings – infants who are abandoned by their parents and later cared for by others – as “illogical and unreasonable”.
He said the proposal denied foundlings automatic citizenship and would subject them to an uncertain and protracted bureaucratic registration process.
Saifuddin also revealed that the citizenship applications for 98% of foundlings beyond the age of infancy were approved.
“So, this fact contradicts the accusations that the government is denying the rights of foundlings,” he said, adding that all citizenship applications by 142 foundlings between 2014 and 2023 were approved.
He said such “facts and figure” proved that those who applied for citizenship will not face any problems if they met the requirements set by NRD. - FMT
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