KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian women married to foreign spouses with overseas-born children seem to be edging closer to realising their dreams of seeing their children attain Malaysian citizenship after Barisan Nasional's (BN) election manifesto announcement on Monday night.
BN chairman and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had announced the coalition's election manifesto, which included a pledge to amend the Federal Constitution to resolve citizenship issues involving overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers married to foreigners.
Family Support and Welfare Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) president Suriani Kempe was more than pleased with such a pledge, but she exercised caution and reminded everyone how some previous general election manifestos never saw the light of day.
"Family Frontiers welcomes the BN manifesto pledge to amend the Federal Constitution so that Malaysian women can have equal rights as men to automatically pass on our citizenship to our children born abroad.
"We hope that this will not end up like previous general election manifestos, where actions did not match the pledges made. It remains to be seen if this 15th General Election pledge will be honoured, provided, of course, that BN can form the next government.
"Since 2020, BN, which is part of the caretaker government, has tried to block Malaysian women from seeking justice in our courts for equal citizenship rights.
"That same government also failed to meet the timeline of their promised constitutional amendment process," said Suriani.
On Sept 9 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the government must grant citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.
Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir, in his judgment, ruled the word "father" in Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution must be read together with Article 8(2) to include mothers and that their children were entitled to citizenship by operation of law.
However, on Aug 5, the Court of Appeal overturned the landmark ruling after two of the three-judge panel ruled that the word "father" in the Second Schedule of Part 11 of the Federal Constitution meant the biological father and could not be extended to include the mother or parents.