PETALING JAYA: The proposed amendments to the Constitution are regressive as they will create a new pool of stateless children, depriving them of basic human rights and costing the taxpayers millions, say children’s rights activists.
The government, they said, should not be cruel and must do the right thing by upholding the spirit of the Federal Constitution to prevent statelessness.
The activists called on the government to prioritise what’s important – amending laws so that children born to Malaysian mothers overseas are made citizens and clear the backlog of the 150,000 cases.
It should not, in the process, amend other provisions to create a stateless class.
The activists were commenting ahead of a planned media conference today on what they termed as “regressive amendments on the citizenship provisions of the Federal Constitution”.
After a court case over the citizenship of children born abroad to Malaysian women with foreign husbands, the government is planning to table amendments to resolve the matter.
The mothers will be allowed to confer citizenship to their children, just like Malaysian men abroad with foreign wives.
However, there were several other proposed amendments that have shocked civil society.
These, they said, will affect children born out of wedlock to Malaysian men, stateless children adopted by Malaysian parents, abandoned babies or children, and families with generations of stateless children born in Malaysia.The proposed amendments will remove safeguards and potentially keep these children in a cycle of statelessness, say the NGOs, which want the Home Ministry to reconsider these “regressive” amendments.
Sharmila Sekaran of Voice of the Children said the drafters of the Federal Constitution in 1962 ensured that there was a provision in the citizenship laws to prevent statelessness.
She said the government’s excuse that children of migrants and refugees would automatically become citizens if the laws were not amended was unfounded.
“Not all refugees are stateless. Refugees are people forced to flee their homes because of persecution or war.
“Migrants, whether documented or not, are also not stateless. Hence any child of a refugee or migrant does not fall into any of the categories which provide for automatic citizenship.
“The other ‘floodgate’ argument – that without the amendments, we will suddenly be inundated by millions of people trying to access citizenship – also has no basis.
“Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail must engage with civil society organisations on the matter. Ministry officials have themselves admitted not knowing the ground during a briefing,” said Sharmila.
“The Minister himself said last March he has been (trying to) deliver justice to children who were born to Malaysian parents but could not access citizenship status due to various documentation issues.
“The minister should attend to these cases first. Even the Welfare Department has struggled to obtain citizenship for children under its care and many leave its institutions at the age of 17 without becoming citizens.
“Leaving people without access to basic healthcare and education, vulnerable to being exploited and violated will cause socio-economic problems,” she added.
Children’s rights activist Datuk Dr Hartini Zainudin said it was “cruel to assume” that children deprived of citizenship are a national threat.
“The children deprived of citizenship because of the National Registration Department’s reluctance are not a security threat.
“If the provisions of the Federal Constitution are followed and recent courts decisions – where the government was told to do the right thing – are understood, the country will be able to tackle the issue of statelessness instead of making this a paper chase,” said Hartini.
She pointed out that in a study done by Subang MP Wong Chen of PKR, for every child the government takes into detention, it costs RM80 per day per child.
“Wouldn’t it be better for this sum multiplied by hundreds of thousands of children, to be used for education or healthcare for children in crisis?” said Hartini.
