Why Putrajaya’s draft citizenship amendments might worsen Sabah’s stateless dilemma instead of fixing it

• In Sabah, up to 500,000 people face statelessness due to factors like mixed-race marriages, poverty, and remote locations.
• Activists warned that proposed citizenship amendments may worsen statelessness, especially for children of mixed-nationality parents in Sabah.
• Advocacy groups also argue the amendments will limit legal pathways to citizenship, affecting vulnerable local-born individuals.

KOTA KINABALU (Oct 9): Born to a Sabahan Chinese father and a Filipino mother in Papar, just 50 minutes from the state capital, it took Alanis Mah 23 years to officially become Malaysian.

Unlike her two younger siblings, Alanis was not granted citizenship from birth. Her childhood was cut short at age 13 when her mother left their family and overnight, she had to take on adult responsibilities and find out how to apply for Malaysian citizenship for herself.

Her first two applications were rejected without explanation. In 2018, Alanis submitted a third application, which was finally approved three years later — 11 years after she first applied.

Now aged 26, Alanis is considered one of the fortunate ones. A straight-A student, she was able to sit for two major school examinations and completed her tertiary education without a MyKad.

In Sabah, the reasons for locals becoming stateless vary from remote locations and poverty to mixed-race marriages, complicated parental relationships, or neglectful parents.

Non-governmental organisations estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 born locally face similar challenges, with some spending their entire lives without proper documentation, severely impacting their future.

A controversial set of amendments proposed by the federal government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is expected to remove a key judicial route for them to escape statelessness.

The first reading was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on March 25 and the second reading is expected to happen when the Dewan Rakyat sits again from Oct 14 to Dec 12.

The good news is that Malaysian mothers married to non-Malaysians will be able to pass their citizenship automatically to their children born abroad.

But should Parliament approve the proposed amendments wholesale, advocacy groups warn that the number of Malaysia-born people unable to call themselves Malaysian citizens will spike, as their legal options for escaping statelessness will be greatly reduced.

“The other two are highly problematic, especially for Sabah,” Sharmila Sekaran, the founding chairman of Voice of the Children, a non-governmental organisation, told Malay Mail.

She explained that one of the proposed amendments would remove the right of permanent residents in Malaysia to pass on citizenship to their children. This change would leave many Sabahans already without citizenship as well as their children with little to no chance of becoming citizens.

The Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance (MCRA) has also raised similar concerns about the proposed changes that have been presented as beneficial for Sabahans, arguing that they will make it harder for impoverished and other disadvantaged groups to obtain citizenship.

“The most affected group are children of natives who live in rural areas with limited access to hospitals, government offices and information on citizenship registration.

“Children born in Sabah out of wedlock to a Malaysian father and foreign mother, children abandoned with no documents, stateless children … will all no longer have any kind of legal pathway to even apply for citizenship,” said Suriani Kempe, president of Family Frontiers, another vocal citizenship advocacy group.

One of the proposed citizenship amendments also seeks to lower the maximum age of registration for citizenship from 21 years to 18 years, closing the window of opportunity.

“How many children under 18 will know the importance of citizenship rights? If Alanis was orphaned or her father had not pushed for her to apply again and again, she might not have gotten her citizenship till today, or ever,” said Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas DHRRA Malaysia director Maalini Ramalo.

News outlets previously reported records from the National Registration Department (JPN) showing that 23,154 individuals under the age of 21 years in Sabah who are stateless have at least one parent who is a Malaysian citizen.

Not a national security threat

One persistent issue in Sabah is the confusion between “stateless” and “illegal immigrants”. It is a sensitive topic due to Sabah’s geographical proximity to the Philippines, which has led to transient communities and its related challenges.

Distrust partly stems from past political manoeuvres, such as “Project IC”, where citizenship was allegedly granted to foreigners to gain votes. In reality, many indigenous communities continue to be heavily affected by statelessness.

The JPN often groups stateless natives with foreign workers, refugees, and undocumented migrants under the broad category of non-citizens.

Incumbent Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has defended the proposed amendments, claiming that stateless children of natives or the Orang Asli won’t be affected as the government is targeting the children of permanent residents of other nationalities.

He has also cited “national security” and the need to prevent those undeserving from obtaining citizenship.

But the MCRA have maintained that the portrayal of these stateless people as a security threat is untrue.

“These are not the national security threats the government should be worried about. We are not talking about migrant workers here. These are natives and the children of permanent residents,” said Sharmila.

“If the concern is preventing foreign nationals from exploiting the law, then the government should improve its mechanisms, not make it harder for Malaysians to access their rights,” she added.

Did Sabah agree to the federal government’s proposed citizenship amendments?

Saifuddin Nasution was reported saying that both the Sabah and Sarawak governments had approved the study to table the amendments.

But Mary Anne Baltazar, founder of Advocates for Non-Discrimination and Access to Knowledge (ANAK), is dubious and questioned which Sabahan group is supportive of Putrajaya’s proposed amendments.

“Sabah is constantly cited as the reason for these regressive amendments, but in our interviews, most Sabah MPs are not fully aware of them, and said that they were not consulted,” she told Malay Mail.

Sharmila argued that it was impractical for the national JPN to decide who qualifies as a Sabahan when it lacks a full understanding of the state’s cultural identity.

“How can the authority on Sabahan citizenship be in an office in Putrajaya? This decision should rest with the state, which understands these issues better,” she said.

Apart from civil society groups, the average Sabahan has shown little interest in the amendments.

On September 4, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor announced that the state government would set up a special committee and task force to address issues related to residents without identity documents and expedite citizenship applications.

The applications will be reviewed by a Sabah panel, with the special committee co-chaired by Saifuddin and Hajiji. The federal JPN and its Sabah counterpart will serve as joint secretariats.

The MCRA is calling for a review of the amendments, proposing that permanent residents in Malaysia get some leeway, or that those with long-term ties to the community be allowed to have their children granted automatic citizenship, or for the amendments to be split into separate Bills for individual debate in Parliament. — Malay Mail