PN may be govt's white knight to pass panned citizenship changes

The government may have an unlikely ally to help them pass amendments to citizenship laws, amid pushback from within Pakatan Harapan against the proposed bill.

In the event that government MPs revolt, the Madani pact could still secure enough votes to amend the Federal Constitution with support from Perikatan Nasional.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said PN MPs are still waiting to see the bill to peruse all the details.

However, after being briefed by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail on Tuesday, Tuan Ibrahim said that PN lawmakers are “convinced that the amendments are necessary”.

“If it is brought and tabled, we have no objections to supporting the bill to amend the constitution.

“But we will still wait for the details of the amendments,” the Kubang Kerian MP said when contacted.

The government has 147 MPs - not including six rogue PN MPs who support Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim - just one short of a two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

PN, meanwhile, has 74 MPs including the six rogues.

Two government MPs have publicly spoken out against the amendments, while backbenchers indicated as early as last November that they may vote against the bill if regressive elements are not removed.

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man

The proposed bill seeks to amend seven constitutional provisions on citizenship.

This includes two amendments that would grant women the right to pass down citizenship to their overseas-born children.

Amendments could worsen statelessness

However, critics say the five other amendments could worsen statelessness, particularly the proposal to remove automatic citizenship for foundlings.

Saifuddin had tried to justify the foundling amendment as being necessary to curtail misuse such as in alleged cases of migrants abandoning their babies at hospitals.

Quizzed on this, Tuan Ibrahim expressed similar sentiments as the minister.

“To me, we need to differentiate between children who are clearly born to citizen parents and those whose parents’ citizenship status is unknown.

“For foundlings, we need to investigate the family’s background,” he said, adding that determining lineage (nasab) is an important element in Islam.

Critics have argued that Saifuddin’s narrative on foundlings is flawed.

This is because the current constitutional provision makes it clear that to qualify for automatic citizenship, an abandoned baby’s parents must be unknown, thus disqualifying babies left behind at hospitals by migrant parents.

Activists who are opposed to the amendments are currently lobbying MPs from both sides to reject the bill.

The government is expected to table the bill before the current Dewan Rakyat session ends on March 27. - Mkini