'Proposal to amend Constitution's citizenship rules coming soon'
A proposal to amend the Federal Constitution’s citizenship rules will be tabled in the cabinet soon, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said.
“God willing, I and (Home Minister) Saifuddin Nasution Ismail will soon table a joint ministerial memorandum to the cabinet to propose amending Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution, relating to the issue of citizenship,” she posted on Twitter yesterday.
While Azalina (above) did not elaborate...
A proposal to amend the Federal Constitution’s citizenship rules will be tabled in the cabinet soon, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said.
“God willing, I and (Home Minister) Saifuddin Nasution Ismail will soon table a joint ministerial memorandum to the cabinet to propose amending Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution, relating to the issue of citizenship,” she posted on Twitter yesterday.
While Azalina (above) did not elaborate on the nature of the amendment that would be proposed, she did tag the NGO Family Frontiers in the announcement.
Her office later confirmed with Malaysiakini that the amendment is in regard to citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution lays out the rules by which a person born after Malaysia Day can or cannot become a citizen of Malaysia.
Family Frontiers is currently embroiled in a lawsuit centred on certain provisions of the schedule that allows Malaysian fathers - but not Malaysian mothers - to automatically confer Malaysian citizenship to their overseas-born children.
The group argued that mothers should have the same right to confer their citizenship to their children.
Last month, Saifuddin Nasution pledged to prioritise the issue of citizenship of children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
The election manifestos of Pakatan Harapan and BN in the last general election also promised constitutional amendments that would give both fathers and mothers the right to confer citizenship to their children.
