PUTRAJAYA should stop amending the Federal Constitution that will create a new class of stateless people, human rights activists said today. 

They said the very government, which has promised reforms, is now taking active steps that will consign the stateless to a hopeless legal limbo.

The activists said the Home Ministry had, in June, announced it was moving ahead with amendments to key citizenship provisions in the Federal Constitution, which will leave the stateless group’s citizenship unrecognised, but inevitably create a vast new class of stateless persons in Malaysia. 

“It is the stuff of dystopian nightmare, and the logic of the government’s move is incomprehensible,” the activists said in a statement today. 

Prominent lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Latheefa Koya, Yayasan Chow Kit Co-founder Hartini Zainudin, and Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas Malaysia director for social protection Maalini Ramalo issued the statement. 

The four said past governments that were not committed to reform or transparency, did not descend to this level. 

They said the proposed removal of section 1(e) of the Second Schedule of Part 2 of the Constitution, a crucial provision intended to prevent statelessness in Malaysia, will have a devastating effect on persons who by the circumstances of their birth are rendered stateless. 

“Infants and children will be punished from birth. 

“This proposed amendment flies in the face of reason of its original incorporation into the constitution,” they said. 

Referring to history, the four said the Constitution granted citizenship to anyone born on Malaysian soil under the principle of “jus soli”. 

Amendments were made in 1962 to include the requirement that one parent must be a citizen to confer citizenship on the child.

“To prevent the danger of persons being rendered stateless with this new requirement, section 1(e) was introduced into the Constitution. 

“The drafters of this 1962 amendment were far-sighted and provided an indispensable safety net in the form of section 1(e). 

“The baffling decision now to remove section 1(e) will result in the creation of a new underclass, living in a country that refuses to recognise their legitimate existence and systemically bars them from participating in society on equal terms. 

“Intended or otherwise, its result is a malevolent form of social engineering creating a new underclass,” they said. 

One of the other proposed amendments is to remove section 19B of the Second Schedule Part 3, which will remove the right of foundlings (abandoned children or orphans) to citizenship. 

“This new amendment is patently to nullify the landmark decision of the Federal Court in CCH & Anor v Pendaftar Besar Bagi Kelahiran dan Kematian, Malaysia (2022) 1 MLJ 71, on the rights of foundlings to citizenship. 

“It will undo the Federal Court’s reasoned and progressive decision to protect foundlings from statelessness. 

“These are not the only amendments that are being proposed. The right to citizenship of permanent residents is also to be removed, making children of those who permanently reside here now potentially stateless as well.

“It is sheer trickery and sleight of hand that these regressive amendments were packaged with a necessary amendment to resolve the much-publicised citizenship woes of children born abroad to Malaysian mothers”.

They said the government’s counterproductive move intends to resolve one aspect of statelessness, while at the same time creating a large new class of stateless persons. 

The four said this new class will not shrink, but expand over time, including generationally. 

“The devastating effect of statelessness cannot be understated. Those who are stateless are barred from access to education, healthcare, gainful employment and all the other rights of a Malaysian citizen. 

“They are forced to take on low-paying jobs or at worse, dangerous and perhaps illegal work, all the while under constant threat of harassment detention or extortion, including by rogue members of enforcement bodies. 

“In summary, they are jettisoned into the margins of existence, a permanent interdiction upon their heads. 

“What sin does a child born out of wedlock bear that they are to be denied a future? Why must abandoned babies and orphans be punished by the government for events they have no control over? What justice is there for those who have only known Malaysia to be their home and yet are denied citizenship?” they asked. 

The government’s proposed amendments to the Constitution are nothing short of cruelty, done under the wrong-headed notion that stateless persons are a security issue, they added. 

They said despite the outcry against the amendments, the government plans to present the proposed amendments to the Conference of Rules for their consent in October. 

“The government promoting a slogan of unity and hope to Malaysians this Merdeka cannot be to the exclusion of the stateless. 

“They are one of us, Malaysians just the same, and their marginalisation diminishes us all,” they said, calling on Putrajaya to drop these constitutional changes immediately. – August 30, 2023.