KUALA LUMPUR – Pakatan Harapan (PH) should allow its MPs to vote according to conscience on the constitutional amendments that will strip automatic citizenship from foundlings, stateless children and babies born out of wedlock, prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has said.
Clearly against the amendments, Ambiga has posted on X to urge the coalition leading the unity government to free its lawmakers from voting in accordance with the party whip when the bill comes up for a vote.
“I dare PH to lift the whip and allow the MPs to vote according to their conscience on this ridiculous amendment. This is an important principle worth fighting for. Not even BN (Barisan Nasional) or PN (Perikatan Nasional) did this,” she said.
The human rights advocate and former Malaysian Bar president said this in a quote tweet to another post urging X users to tag their MPs to ask them to amend the proposed constitutional amendments.
The controversial changes involve taking away citizenship by operation of law, or automatically, from foundlings. With this, abandoned children must register in order to obtain citizenship.
Various MPs, besides civil society organisations, have called these proposals cruel and unjust to the children as statelessness will deprive them of access to education, healthcare and other basic rights.
These amendments were bundled into the draft bill alongside another proposed amendment – one which has received wider support – to grant Malaysian mothers the right to pass citizenship to their overseas-born children. Currently, only fathers are able to do so.
A few MPs from PH have gone on record to oppose the amendments they say will worsen the problem of statelessness, besides showing a lack of compassion towards innocent children on the government’s part.
They include PKR lawmaker Hassan Abdul Karim (Pasir Gudang) and DAP’s Ramkarpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor) and Howard Lee (Ipoh Timor).
Other DAP MPs who last year expressed concern about the proposals include Bangi lawmaker Syahredzan Johan and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.
The bill has yet to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat as Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he would be holding sessions with MPs to explain the amendments.
The unity government currently has more than two-thirds support in the Dewan Rakyat. Changes to the Federal Constitution require votes from two-thirds of the total 222 MPs. – March 11, 2024