MALAYSIAN citizenship laws are riddled with gender bias, largely favouring men over women, and has become totally unacceptable in this day and age, said a law expert.

Professor Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi said the laws have become irreconcilable with the spirit of the 2001 amendment to Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution forbidding gender discrimination.

“For some categories of citizenship, descent from a male citizen is required, while descent from a Malaysian female carries no weight.

“It is totally unacceptable, biologically and genetically. I can’t see why descent from a female is less important than a male and, in terms of justice and equality, I can’t understand it,” he said at the Borneo Rainforest Law Conference held over the weekend.

He cited the example of male citizens with foreign female spouses being entitled to apply for citizenship for their partners after two years of residence in Malaysia.

However, female citizens in a similar situation with foreign spouses don’t enjoy such a privilege, and have to wait 12 years to be eligible for a discretionary grant.

However, Shad said there are also instances where Malaysian men who wed foreign spouses have had their partner’s citizenship request denied under Article 15 (1) (a).

He said in such cases, “policy overrides the law, whereby the National Registration Department interprets the words ‘reside in the federation’ to mean ‘permanent resident’”.

Shad said the NRD’s interpretation was unjustified, and the words in the Constitution were being spun around to mean something else. 

“This is entirely in the NRD’s hands and, therefore, they have the power to give and refuse PR to foreign women. It is entirely up to the NRD whether they are accepted or not.

“I think that is an unacceptable clear misinterpretation of the law,” he said.

Many foreign women residing in Malaysia for 10 to 15 years have no choice but to apply for visas until today, he said in calling for a constitutional amendment to address these issues. – January 21, 2019.