Irene Chang
SIBU (Sept 15): De facto Law Minister Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has been asked to actively advocate to the Attorney General and Prime Minister not to appeal the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s landmark ruling allowing automatic citizenship for children born abroad to Malaysian mothers.
In saying this, Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chan also suggested the minister affirm the judicial decision by tabling a Bill to amend the relevant articles in the Federal Constitution, instead of adopting a wait and see attitude to only speak his mind if and when the matter is raised in Cabinet.
“As the law minister and as the matter involves the interpretation of the law, he has the duty to bring the issue up for discussion and to impress upon the Prime Minister that for the sake of all Malaysian women, who are caught in this nightmare, the government should follow the court of law to make things right for them,” she said in a statement.
Chang said it is time that Malaysia is up to par with the rest of Southeast Asia (apart from Brunei) to enable the right to pass on citizenship by descent gender neutral.
She said the appeal by the Federal government against the landmark case is an obvious indication of an intention to continue practising gender discrimination against Malaysian women rather than alleviate their misery and difficulties.
According to Chang, the court has pointed the executive government in the direction it thinks the law should be defending and protecting womenfolk.
Given that the boarder interpretation of Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution, read together with Article 14(1)(b) and Section (1)(b) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution has been adopted by the court, the Federal government should not even consider to appeal, she said.
“Instead, if they feel that the Articles should be given a more restrictive and literal interpretation but like the court, they also have the intention to protect our women’s rights, then they should take immediate relevant steps to amend the relevant articles in the Constitution to give it a definitive interpretation in support of the judicial decision.
“This would leave no more room for argument on the possible interpretations of the relevant Articles,” she said.
Chang said Malaysian women have long been discriminated against when it comes to passing down their nationality to children born in foreign countries to foreign dads.
Out of the world’s some 200 countries, only 25, including Malaysia, still deny women from having the equal right to confer nationality on their children, she said.
Chang pointed out Malaysian women overseas have to apply for their children to acquire citizenship and this is often unsuccessful.
She said Malaysian women living overseas with their children who have no Malaysian citizenship could be in an abusive relationship and unable to return home to seek solace.
“And if, against all odds, they manage to come back to Malaysia, these children would not be given the same rights as other Malaysian children, especially in terms of access to healthcare and education,” she explained.
According to her, many women in Sarawak are caught in such a situation.
“This gender discrimination, which arose from the nationality laws, is therefore one of the root causes of statelessness in Malaysia,” she added.