CSO coalition raises alarm over proposed citizenship amendments, warns of worsening statelessness in S’wak, Sabah

CSO Platform for Reform logo

KUCHING, Nov 23: The Sabah and Sarawak Chapters of the CSO Platform for Reform have expressed concern that if the proposed Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship announced by Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution is implemented, it will exacerbate the problem of statelessness, particularly among children.

In a statement issued today, the steering committee of the CSO Platform for Reform stressed that tens of thousands of Malaysian-born individuals could lose a crucial safeguard — the rights to a fair legal process to claim citizenship.

“The citizenship amendments will affect children of Malaysian families. Instead of resolving the dire situation of statelessness that the state faces, the regressive amendments will exacerbate the number of stateless persons especially those from vulnerable indigenous communities.

“Reported cases of these vulnerable indigenous communities affected are the Penan people of Sarawak and Lundayeh of Sabah.

“These communities struggle to obtain government recognition and live without access to basic infrastructure, electricity, and education, let alone the luxury to travel out of their village, which is usually inaccessible even to outsiders, to obtain documentation, rendering them unwillingly stateless as ‘invisible’ people of our land.

“The government should go forward with the progressive amendments for children of Malaysian mothers born overseas, but drop the five regressive proposed amendments,” read the statement.

It went on to say that the proposed Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship will adversely affect the Indigenous Peoples of Sabah and Sarawak who are still stateless or who hold the Malaysian permanent resident (MyPR) instead of the Malaysian identity card (MyKad).

“The proposed amendments are not in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) where safeguards on citizenship were intentionally introduced to ensure that everyone born in Malaysia will not be rendered stateless as stated by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Allahyarham Tunku Abdul Rahman, during the parliamentary debates in 1962.

The press statement further remarked that the Malaysia Madani government must safeguard the promise made to Sabah and Sarawak to ensure that no one in Sabah and Sarawak are rendered stateless. — DayakDaily