AG Chambers mentality “delayed” equal citizenship rights to children, says Nazri
TASNIM LOKMAN20 Mar 2023 09:04am
Malaysian Ambassador to the United States Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said he had pushed for the law to be amended or “equalised” during his time as de facto Law Minister from March 2004 to May 2013.
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WASHINGTON DC, US - The people working at the Attorney-General Chambers are to be blamed for the delay in giving equal citizenship rights to children born to Malaysian mothers overseas to foreign spouses.
Malaysian Ambassador to the United States Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said he had pushed for the law to be amended or “equalised” during his time as de facto Law Minister from March 2004 to May 2013.
However, he said the chamber staff were not happy with him and the idea put forward.
“I pushed for it (equal citizenship rights) in Cabinet but I blame the people in the AG Chambers, they were not happy and very reluctant to support me on this including the women.
“They defined parents as either one which is ridiculous. Parents means “ibu bapa” not “ibu dan bapa”. If ibu bapa they need consent from both parents but they intrepreted it as either one and most of the time its the father.
“This is archaic, gender discrimintory, its mad.... How on earth this existed in our Constitution is beyond me,” he told Sinar Daily in an exclusive interview.
Nazri praised the Unity Government’s decision to amend the Federal Constitution giving the children citizenship rights regardless if they were born to Malaysian mothers or fathers overseas.
He said this happened because of the new government and their reformist mindset.
Nazri said this was not only good news but also a present to all the Malaysian women in conjunction with International Women’s Day earlier this month.
He added that the hindrance of such laws that prevents children from giving their mother’s citizenship would only bring problems in the future especially one that involves religion.
“We as Malaysians, we still have this Asian roots and traditions as well as religions.
“It doesn’t matter if their Christians, Buddhist or Muslims but if they are married to a person of another religion, the mother will suffer if they part ways later on what more if the child cannot be here in Malaysia with her,” he said.
Nazri was the Padang Rengas MP for four terms and two-term MP for Chenderoh.
The Cabinet had agreed to amend the Federal Constitution, allowing children born to Malaysian mothers overseas to obtain Malaysian citizenship automatically.
In a joint statement dated Feb 17, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said announced the government's decision on the matter.
The proposed amendment was expected to be tabled during the current session of the Dewan Rakyat, after completing all legal procedures.
Currently, the Federal Constitution only recognises citizenship through fathers, which means that children born to Malaysian mothers outside of the country cannot obtain Malaysian citizenship automatically.
In August 2022, the court of appeal ruled that children born abroad Malaysian women were not eligible for automatic citizenship since the Federal Constitution only granted citizenship through fathers.
The ruling overturned a September 2021 decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the government must grant citizenship to children born outside of Malaysia to Malaysian mothers as the word "father" in the Second Schedule of the constitution should be read to include mothers and that their children are entitled to citizenship by operation of the law.
