KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) has called for another study to be conducted so citizenship issues can be tackled holistically.
In a memorandum handed to members of parliament, Suhakam today said the proposed amendments to the Constitution on citizenship must be drafted from a bilateral perspective, preserving Malaysia's sovereignty while also considering the outcomes to reduce stateless children.
Suhakam vice-chairman Ragunath Kesavan, repeating the body's rejection of the amendments, said the proposed provisions were regressive, abhorrent and would be a setback for human rights in Malaysia.
Ragunath was referring to the amendment of Section 19B of Part III of the Second Schedule of the constitution, which he said could remove safeguards against stateless children.
"This is one of the most regressive proposed amendments to the constitution in the last 40 to 50 years.
"We have no problems with the minister or government, but moving from granting citizenship by operation of law, as stated in the constitution, to leaving it to the discretion of the home minister, is not something that we can live with," he said at a news conference.
Present were Children's Commissioner Dr Farah Nini Dusuki and Suhakam commissioners Professor Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal, Datuk Mariati Robert, Datuk Hasnal Merican, and Tengku Mohamed Fauzi Hamid.
Ragunath said the main obstacles in the law were bureaucracy and the unresponsive nature of the National Registration Department (NRD) to applicants.
"The minister has talked about his efforts and what he has done, approving more 10,000 citizenship applications, and we are very happy with that.
"But the concern we have is that there is a serious trust deficit in the NRD. Some applications have gone five to eight years without any response from the NRD.
"And for children, that is a completely unacceptable period of time, in terms of their education, development and growth."
He said children not granted citizenship rights would become stateless, and when they marry, their children too would become stateless.
"They will face trouble with employment, health and education
"They could go into crime, they cannot open a bank account and have no access to hospitals and education. So what do you expect them to do?
"They will remain in Malaysia and cannot go anywhere.
"To turn a blind eye and say that it is the discretion of the minister will not solve the problem, and does not mean there will be no stateless children in Malaysia."
In the memorandum, Suhakam had stated its opposition to the amendments to Section 19B and Section 1(e), and the repeal of Section 2(3).
It said the amendments and repeal would lead only to the elimination of rights rather than the protection of the citizenship rights of the affected children, and continue the cycle of statelessness for them.
Suhakam said the Home Ministry's failure to present evidence and data regarding the threat to national security, if citizenship was granted to these children, had denied an individual's citizenship rights, which could be deemed unconstitutional.
Last Friday, Home Ministser Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail announced the cabinet's green light of the proposed amendments to the constitution over citizenship to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.
On Monday, he said the amendment was aimed at allowing a degree of control to be established and to avoid granting citizenship to those who were not eligible.