KUALA LUMPUR: Amendments to the citizenship laws should not take away the rights of children born in the country to parents who are permanent residents, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The Pagoh MP and former prime minister said taking away the existing right to citizenship from these children would have a huge impact on their lives.
He noted that the proposed amendments to Schedule Two of the Federal Constitution only covered children born in the federation with at least one parent who is a Malaysian citizen.
However, the amendments do not provide the right of citizenship to children born in the country but whose parents are permanent residents.
"It is my view that this amendment should be reviewed," he said when debating the constitutional amendments on citizenship in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (Oct 16).
"This is important as the amendment will deny the existing rights of children born here to parents who are permanent residents, which is guaranteed under the Constitution.
"This is not a small matter."
He said the review should be based on humanitarian concerns and respect for the rights of this group of children.
Muhyiddin also said he was against the lowering of the age of eligibility to apply for citizenship from 21 to 18 as stated under Article 15A of the Constitution.
He noted that citizenship application is usually a protracted process that could result in some applicants losing that right if the process goes beyond the limit.
"That is why when I was home minister, I introduced a specific SOP to speed up the process under Article 15A.
"This is crucial if applications involve children as they may lose the right if the process takes too long and they pass the age of 18," he added.
Meanwhile, Perikatan Nasional chief whip Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PN-Kota Baru) urged the government to explain the mechanism to be used to measure one’s Malay language proficiency under the proposed amendment to the Constitution.
He asked the government if the mechanism would be aligned with the provision under Article 152, which upholds the position of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.
“The proposed amendment on Article 15(1)(c) stated that the applicant must have an adequate knowledge of the Malay language to satisfy the Federal Government, in this case the home minister.
“What are the mechanisms or methods that will be used to ensure that the applicant has ‘adequate’ proficiency in the language? Would it fulfil the provision under Article 15 of the Constitution?” he asked during the debate.
