KUALA LUMPUR – A legal rights group has slammed Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh for apparently defending the controversial constitutional amendments on citizenship laws, which have courted much flak over recent months.
In a statement today, Lawyers for Liberty director Zaid Malek accused Yeoh of issuing “grossly misleading and dishonest” remarks that failed to consider concerns regarding the bill, as raised by several quarters.
“It is a great disappointment that Yeoh and her colleagues persist in painting a false and positive picture of the citizenship bill, which bears no connection (to) reality.
“PH (Pakatan Harapan) had repeatedly promised when in opposition to resolve the terrible problem of statelessness in Malaysia. Now, (when) in power, they are misleading (the public) and offering excuses,” he said.
Zaid was referring to comments Yeoh had made during an interview with Malaysiakini published earlier today, where the minister expressed being “pleased” with the proposed amendments.
Labelling the bill as a “positive move” towards granting Malaysian mothers equal rights to confer citizenship, Yeo said that the tabling of the bill in Parliament last month proved that there is political will for the matter from the government.
Previously, despite the government having dropped some contentious proposed amendments from the bill, it continued to face backlash for not being retroactive for overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers.
As such, Zaid said that Malaysian mothers have been left “hopeless and devastated by the deliberate exclusion of their children from the ambit of the bill”.
“The thousands upon thousands of stateless children born overseas to Malaysian mothers will receive no benefit whatsoever from this bill, contrary to what was claimed by (Yeoh) as by virtue of clause 12(1), only children born after the passing of the amendments will receive citizenship.
“Those existing thousands of children will be left in the lurch. This is cruel and ridiculous because the government claimed from the beginning that (the reason behind) the constitutional amendments was to help these children.”
The lawyer also claimed that the unity government’s promises to alleviate the plight faced by Malaysian mothers were for naught as the bill was merely tabled and not debated nor voted on during the recent Parliament session.
“In fact, what happened was that the home minister (Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail) announced that the bill was ready to be debated just minutes before the Parliament sitting was adjourned,” Zaid said.
“This was just a charade and a clear abuse of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders. As the government controls the business of the Dewan, they could easily have had the bill debated and passed.
“In the end, nothing was accomplished, and no relief was given to the thousands of Malaysian mothers who were waiting desperately for the law to be passed.”
He also urged the government to immediately announce that the citizenship bill will be amended to include existing children born overseas to Malaysian mothers.
“To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the hopes and aspirations of thousands of Malaysian mothers and their innocent children,” he added.
The next Dewan Rakyat session will commence in the last week of June and span a duration of four weeks.
When tabled for its second reading in the lower House on March 27, the bill did not include the initially proposed controversial elements that would have denied foundlings automatic citizenship.
The bill also proposed amending sections on citizenship for children where only “father” is mentioned to “mother or father” – as demanded by civil society and Malaysian mothers married to foreign husbands whose children are born overseas. – April 9, 2024