Suhakam is alarmed over Sabah deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan’s remark of wanting Sabah to be exempted from amendments to constitutional citizen rights.
This is because Article 161E(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution prevents Sabah and Sarawak from being exempted from the constitution in matters of citizenship, it said in a statement.
"The abrupt development signalled the government’s disarray in preparing the bill,” it said.
On Friday, Jeffrey referred to a recent state cabinet meeting, saying the proposed amendments to citizenship rights should apply only to Peninsular Malaysia.
According to the Borneo Post, he said such amendments would be a double-edged sword that could increase the number of undocumented migrants.
Suhakam also urged the government to reconsider removing the present automatic rights to citizenship for children born in Malaysia to permanent residents as doing so could worsen the issue of statelessness.
It also advised that any amendment to the Federal Constitution should be to enhance the right to citizenship, rather than remove or dilute it.
"The current state of statelessness in Malaysia did not happen in a vacuum nor it is accidental.
"It reflects and exposes the perpetual creation of statelessness in our public service delivery for decades.
"It is clear that an overhaul reform is necessitated with urgency and good faith to fix the broken system,” it said.
Controversial bill
The highly controversial bill was first supposed to be debated and voted on in March but the government moved to end the Dewan Rakyat session just before the debate.
It was postponed again during the July Parliament session.
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the bill had been presented to the Conference of Rulers again but was still in need of fine-tuning.
Saifuddin confirmed that the second and third readings of the amendment bill will be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming session later this month.
The bill would, among others, grant Malaysian women the right to pass down citizenship to their children born overseas.
However, activists have criticised the government for not making that right retroactive, meaning mothers who have been actively campaigning to get their children citizenship would not benefit from the law.
Activists also argue that the changes could render more people stateless.
There is also speculation of pushback from government MPs against the bill.
As the bill involves amending the Constitution, it would require the support of two-thirds of Dewan Rakyat members, which is 148 votes. - Mkini
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