Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s reasoning for the removal of automatic citizenship for children born to permanent residents in the looming constitutional amendment is incorrect, Lawyers for Liberty said.
In a statement, the human rights group’s adviser N Surendran also questioned whether the government fully understood the key facts related to the controversial amendments to the Federal Constitutional related to citizenship and their ramifications.
Surendran particularly pointed out the minister’s remark in Parliament yesterday that the government would remove Section 1(1) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Constitution, which caters for Singaporeans entering Malaysia after the separation of the two countries, and who may marry and have children here.
“Saifuddin’s reasoning for removing the PR clause in Section 1(a) is fundamentally flawed as it is based on incorrect facts and failure to grasp its historical origins. Firstly, Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, and not 1963 as implied by Saifuddin.
“The PR’s children clause came into existence in 1963 via the Malaysia Act 1963. It was not inserted into the Constitution in 1965 to deal with the fallout from the separation of the two countries as alleged by Saifuddin.
“This is a basic fact. How could the minister get it wrong?” Surendran asked today.
The former PKR leader pointed out that the real purpose of the PR’s children’s clause is to prevent children of a permanent resident from becoming stateless, and not to give citizenship to children of Singaporean red IC holders as stated in Saifuddin’s reply.
‘Govt seems clueless’
If the clause is removed, Malaysia would lose out as skilled workers needed for critical sectors leave Malaysia due to their children not getting citizenship, said Surendran.
“Saifuddin’s attempt to justify this amendment by claiming that the child of a Malaysian permanent resident in Australia would also not get automatic citizenship is also completely wrong.
“In fact, by virtue of Section 12 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, every child of a permanent resident is automatically a citizen,” he said.
Surendran then rued the “serious factual and historical errors” in Saifuddin’s remark, which makes one wonder whether the government knew what it was doing regarding the constitutional amendment, he said.
“They (the government) seem clueless and produce fresh factually wrong justifications daily.
“The only right thing for the government to do now, in the interest of the nation, is to withdraw these proposed amendments and proceed only with the change on children born to overseas mothers.” - Mkini
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