KUALA LUMPUR: The Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas Malaysia (DHRRA) has called for the halt of the citizenship bill following the proposal to remove the category of having at least one permanent resident (PR) parent for a Malaysian-born child to be granted citizenship.
Its social protection director Maalini Ramalo said the proposed amendment would mean that children born to stateless parents, but who hold PR status, would not be granted automatic citizenship.
This, she said, would pose a risk of multi-generational statelessness for the children of stateless Malaysian PR holders.
"The Home Minister (Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail) previously said the decision to amend the citizenship law is to prevent abuse by foreigners.
"He also said there will be no issues of stateless children (once the amendment passes) as children of parents with Malaysian PR status will follow the nationality of their parents.
"However, due to the inconsistency, PR status has also been issued for statelessness (in Malaysia).
"Hence, the proposed amendment makes no such distinction between PR holders who are stateless and also PR holders who are foreigners because a child born to stateless parents with Malaysian PR status will not be given automatic citizenship (with this amendment)," she said when contacted.
Section 1(a) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution currently stipulates that every person born within the federation, of whose parents at least is a citizen at the time of birth or permanently resident, is eligible for citizenship.
However, the government's proposed citizenship bill sought to remove the term "permanently resident", which would result in a child born to at least one parent with Malaysian PR status no longer automatically qualified for citizenship.
Following this, Maalini added that there was an inconsistency in the proposed bill, as the Home Ministry had previously acknowledged that there were cases of stateless persons acquiring Malaysian PR status.
"There is inconsistency in the bill when the minister said there will be no issue of stateless children once the amendment is passed as the children with a PR status parents will follow their parents' nationality.
"However, the ministry has acknowledged that cases of stateless persons without citizenship do exist. Essentially, they confirmed that there are stateless Malaysian PR holders.
"Hence, if the ministry has acknowledged that stateless persons hold a Malaysian PR status, then this must be reflected in the bill."
The bill is expected to be tabled for its second and third reading in Dewan Rakyat next week.