Down to business: Saifuddin Nasution speaking during question time in Parliament. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: It was great news when the long-awaited citizenship law to allow children born abroad to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses to be granted automatic citizenship was finally passed by Dewan Rakyat.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill 2024 was passed after 206 MPs voted in favour with one against while 14 were absent.
Also welcomed by the House was the announcement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail that a standard operating procedure would be put in place to provide a clear time frame for applicants to get an answer on the status of their citizenship application.
Saifuddin Nasution said that the SOP would provide a fixed timeline for an applicant to get a reply on whether their bid for citizenship had been successful or rejected.
“The SOP is read and has received approval from the Cabinet.
“Applicants will be able to know the result within one year,” he informed the House when winding up debate on the Bill in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Among the SOPs, he mentioned, was that officers in charge of the application process would first brief applicants on the necessary documents needed for their application.
“The officer will determine whether their documentation is complete or not.
“There will be no more waiting for seven or eight years for applicants to learn if their applications have been rejected,” he said.
Saifuddin Nasution’s announcement was greeted by cheers of approval from the floor.
Before voting on the Bill, Saifuddin Nasution urged MPs to support the Bill.
“If we are determined to do what is right, this should be the initiative.
“Let us give good news to all women and mothers out there that we are caring witnesses to something they have been struggling with for a long time,” he said to thumps of approval from MPs.
Earlier, Saifuddin Nasution made a special mention to thank former Home minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for laying the ground work that eventually led to the amendments.
He said Hishammuddin had developed a data base to allow the Home Ministry to tackle the issue with greater ease.
“I want this recorded in the Hansard that I salute you for this and that you flew all the way back from the UK to be with us here today,” he added.
However, Saifuddin Nasution acknowledged that Sabah was still plagued by unresolved issues related to citizenship.
He said this include several categories of identification documents issued in Sabah during the 1970s till 1991.
“Based on a 2015 census by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), there were 29,000 Bajau laut (sea nomads) in Sabah, of which only 6,000 were Malaysians,” he added.
Saifuddin Nasution said that he would tackle this issue next and would need the cooperation of the Sabah state government in the matter.
“I hope that the Sabah state government will issue a paper to consider the matter so that we can address the issue once and for all,” he added.
Earlier, Saifuddin Nasution said that he had settled 19,317 citizenship applications as of March this year, surpassing his 17,000 target set for December this year.
“I also wish to inform the House that more than 80% of the 32,153 citizenship applications which had been pending for more than five years were approved,” he added.
Earlier before voting, Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said that the bloc vote was needed in accordance with Article 159 of the Federal Constitution with regards to Constitutional Amendments.
He ordered the bell to be rung for two minutes with additional three minutes given for MPs to make their way into the House before voting commenced.
Bloc votes were for both second and third readings of the Bill, lasting about 30 minutes in total.
Johari said that one MP could not exercise his rights to vote as he had been suspended for six months.
The MP in question was Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal (PN-Machang).
The Bill also contained several other amendments pertaining to citizenship laws, which include revocation of citizenship with dual citizenship, language proficiency requirement, lowering the age for citizenship applications from 21 to 18, among others.
