Withdraw appeal against citizenship ruling, Johor Sultan tells govt
He says citizenship is a basic right of every child, irrespective of whether the Malaysian parent is the father or mother.
PETALING JAYA: Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar today urged the government to abort its plans to appeal the recent High Court decision allowing citizenship rights to children born overseas, regardless of whether the Malaysian parent is the father or mother.
Sultan Ibrahim said all children born to Malaysian parents abroad must be accorded the right to citizenship in this country.
“The sanctity of the courts must be upheld. Why discriminate against Malaysian mothers with overseas-born children?
“This is a basic right of every child, irrespective of whether the Malaysian parent is the father or mother.
“It doesn’t feel right that Malaysian fathers and mothers are viewed differently in the eyes of the law concerning their child’s citizenship.
“Are Malaysian mothers less Malaysian than Malaysian fathers?” he asked in a statement today.
Further, he added that the government should stop rejecting citizenship rights to deserving people when the country was already plagued by a serious brain drain of talented and qualified young people.
“Now is the time to embrace, welcome and nurture them as Malaysians, not to reject and turn them away. Such a policy is fundamentally flawed,” he said.
Recently, the government filed a notice of appeal to set aside the High Court decision that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers are entitled to citizenship by operation of law.
Once the written judgment is made available, the government will file a memorandum of appeal to outline where the trial judge has erred in law and facts.
The High Court ruling on Sept 9 came after six Malaysian women and the family support group, Family Frontiers, filed the suit in December against certain provisions of the Federal Constitution which they said were discriminatory.
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Before the judgemet, the provisions in the constitution were said to allow only the father to pass on his citizenship to his children born outside the federation.