Corporate figure Nazir Razak has thrown his support behind calls for the government to "decouple" the highly criticised constitutional amendments that will affect citizenship.
In an Instagram post, he expressed his approval of the government's effort to grant Malaysian women married to foreign spouses equal rights to register their overseas-born children as Malaysians.
However, the former CIMB bank chairperson raised his concerns over Putrajaya's plan to deny foundlings and stateless children their citizenship rights through the planned amendments.
"Let’s talk about foundlings. I recently watched the film ‘Abang Adik’ and was deeply moved by the depiction of two stateless children waiting desperately for their citizenship.
"Even though they were born in Malaysia to Malaysians. How unjust it would be to deny foundlings their citizenship rights as intended by our founding fathers. There is a second part to the proposed amendment that does just this," Nazir said.
He was referring to a local film released last year about two siblings who were struggling in life due to their status as undocumented migrants in Malaysia.
Major backlash
On Monday (March 11), Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that Putrajaya wanted to amend the citizenship law related to foundlings to prevent it from being abused by foreigners.
This came despite major backlash and pushback from various quarters, with some arguing that the proposed amendments will worsen conditions for those who are stateless.
Those who oppose believe it could render more people stateless or place individuals in precarious positions.
Adding further, Nazir, who is a member of a citizen-centred platform called Better Malaysia Assembly (BMA), said abandoned children are helpless and were not at fault for crossing the border in the first place.
"Children are completely helpless and can’t register themselves. Why do they deserve to face life in stateless limbo because of the irresponsibility of their parents or the circumstances they came from?
"Furthermore, without birth documents and unknown biological parents, how will they prove their parentage?
"This is a contentious issue. We should let our representatives vote and decide for us.
"But the two key elements of the amendment should be decoupled and voted on separately. Bundling the two in this manner is simply not fair, and it is simple to do the right thing. Decouple please!" he said. - Mkini
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