Ramkarpal: Postpone citizenship amendments until red flags resolved

PARLIAMENT | Ramkarpal Singh (Harapan-Bukit Gelugor) has called on the government to postpone the proposed constitutional amendments on citizenship until further study is conducted.

The controversial bill has led to some disagreement among MPs with speculation that they may vote against their party’s line.

Addressing the Dewan Rakyat today, the DAP lawmaker singled out one of eight proposals to amend the Federal Constitution in granting citizenship to stateless children and foundlings (abandoned infants).

“If the government’s proposal is approved, a foundling would not be eligible for automatic citizenship and would have to go through a registration process (with the National Registration Department).

“It is public knowledge that this is a bureaucratic process that takes a lot of time, and does not even guarantee that the foundling would be granted citizenship,” he said during his debate on the Royal Address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar at the opening of the First Meeting of the Second Session of the 15th Parliament.

The proposal in question is to amend the Second Schedule, Part III, Section 19(b) of the Federal Constitution which grants abandoned children citizenship by operation of law.

Ramkarpal cited rumours that the reason behind the government’s approach was to curb a rise in foundlings in East Malaysia, particularly in Sabah.

However, he questioned if the Home Ministry had conducted an in-depth study before concluding that this proposed amendment would solve the foundling issue in these states.

“There have been many reasons given that this (automatically granting citizenship to foundlings) is a national security issue but has the government carried out enough of a study to safely say that the proposed amendment would solve the foundling issue?

“Will this amendment prevent the abandonment of babies in these states? If the government has done a study on this, I urge for the study’s findings to be presented.

“But I opine that this amendment would not achieve the intended goal, because the foundling and migrant issue in these states is due to many other factors that need to be handled holistically, be it through the legal process or enforcement,” Ramkarpal said.

Positive and negative amendments

Last November, a government backbencher claimed that unhappiness over proposed constitutional amendments in granting citizenship could see some MPs voting against their party line if the government did not adopt a “decoupled” approach to the proposed amendments.

It is understood that this is because the bill included both positive and negative amendments, the former being amendments that aim to give Malaysian mothers equal rights to confer automatic citizenship on children born overseas.

These amendments are to Article 14(1)(b), Sections 1(b) and 1(c) of Part II of the Second Schedule.

At present, those sections only allow the granting of automatic citizenship to those born overseas to a Malaysian father after Sept 16, 1963 (Malaysia Day).

However, the negative amendments include amending the Second Schedule, Part II Section 1(e) which grants every stateless person born in Malaysia citizenship by operation of law.

Following the backlash, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the government will hold an engagement with MPs from both sides of the divide to get their feedback.

It is understood that MPs have not yet been notified of the engagement, which was initially scheduled to be held during the current parliamentary sitting. - Mkini