No relaxation of rules to speed up award of citizenship — Hishammuddin

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THE government cannot arbitrarily relax conditions for the award of citizenship to any individual solely for the purpose of expediting approval of the applications, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said yesterday.

He said the approval process was subject to the Federal Constitution.

“In this borderless world, any abuse of the system in certain cases could result in serious crimes such as smuggling of drugs, babies and firearms and those associated with money laundering and violence.

“In the context of national security, this matter cannot be taken lightly merely to expedite the process and achieve the desired result,” he said when replying to a supplementary question, from Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah), in the Dewan Rakyat.

Fong had wanted to know the reasons for rejection of applications for citizenship and whether there was a relaxation of conditions in the award of citizenship.

Hishammuddin said elected representatives should understand and strike a balance between the people’s need and the process of approving citizenship so as to avert security issues.

Replying to the original question, from Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu), he said the ministry did not face any problem in processing citizenship applications so long as they were complete and fulfilled the requirements under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

He said that in doubtful cases, such as registration of marriage after the birth of children, the ministry would apply the result of tests of DNA samples to verify the blood relationship between the parents and children.

“This was to assist the ministry to make an accurate decision,” he said.

Hishammuddin said 3,042 people were awarded citizenship last year for applications made between 2007 and 2009.

He also said that 32,927 applications for citizenship were processed in 2009 and 29,677 last year. — Bernama