A PROPOSAL to amend the Federal Constitution’s citizenship rules will soon be tabled to the cabinet, Law and Institutional Reform Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Azalina Othman Said said.

“(Home Minister) Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and I 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 did not elaborate on the nature of the amendment that would be proposed, she did tag the NGO Family Frontiers in the announcement.

Part II of the second schedule of the Federal Constitution lays out the rules by which a person born after Malaysia Day can become a citizen of Malaysia.

Family Frontiers is currently involved in a lawsuit centred on certain provisions of the schedule that allows Malaysian fathers but not Malaysian mothers to automatically confer Malaysian citizenship on their overseas-born children.

The group wants mothers to have the same right to confer their citizenship to their children.

Last month, Saifuddin 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. – Bernama, January 5, 2023.