SHAFIE Apdal wants restrictive laws on citizenship eased to allow any person with a foreigner for either parent considered for MyKads to end the problem of stateless persons in Sabah.

Under the constitution, Article 15A stipulates the definition of “anak tidak setaraf” (unprivileged child) as meaning that the child’s birthright will follow the mother’s birthright.

For instance, if a Filipina woman conceives a child out of wedlock in Sabah with a Malaysian man, the child would be a Filipino national, following the mother’s nationality.

“This is not a new issue and therefore we need to find a way to resolve it.

“We need to have a system that stipulates that in the instance any one of the parents is local, their children should be considered for MyKads.

“There should not be a problem in giving MyKads to those whose fathers are local but mothers are not.

“We must streamline the matter so none of these children become stateless.

“What are we going to do now? Deport them? They don’t belong there,” he said after meeting the people in Keningau, some three hours’ drive from Kota Kinabalu.  

An estimated 60,000 people in Sabah are stateless, according to a census carried by a coalition of civil society groups called Gannos.

Shafie said he did not mean to give citizenship to illegal immigrants, as alleged previously by the opposition.

“We do want to end this problem of stateless persons in the state, but we need to have a system to ease the process of providing MyKads to the children.

“If we don’t, how will they be able to go to school and enter universities if they don’t have identification cards?” he said. – September 28, 2018.