Invariably, “Not a citizen” or “Not yet determined” will be written on that child’s birth certificate.

This child will face difficulties in registering in a public school. Special permission from the District Education Office will have to be obtained. The child will be charged additional fees, and be ineligible for free textbooks and subsidised school meals.

If the child’s citizenship status isn’t resolved by the time he/she reaches upper secondary school, he/she will not be allowed to sit for the public exams. If the child falls ill, he/she would be charged much higher rates at government clinics and hospitals.

The route to citizenship for this child is via Article 15A of the Federal Constitution. The father can apply under this provision, but the decision is discretionary. Most often, after a wait of three to six years, a rejection letter is issued by the Home Ministry. No reasons are given.

The local Registration Office is not in the know either. They will just say “apply again”. We have tried getting DNA tests done to prove the Malaysian father is truly the biological father. But still, most cases get rejected. However sometimes, just before elections, a group of such applicants will be awarded citizenship.

Many of these individuals enter adulthood without much formal education and an identity card. Their non-citizen status which is recorded in their birth certificate, precludes them from the provision of any identity cards whether blue or red.  

This impacts on their ability to enlist in vocational training institutions or apply for jobs in the formal sector as the employer cannot register them with EPF or Socso. They are constrained to go for non-formal contract jobs without any social protection.

Girl children in this predicament will transmit their stateless condition to their children, as without an identity card, their marriage with their Malaysian husband cannot be registered. The cycle of marginalisation is then extended to another generation. But to what purpose?

Children of women without documents

There is another group of children with a similar predicament. Their mothers, though born in Malaysia, do not have proper documents, often because of alcoholism and apathy on the part of the grandparents.

These mothers are not able to register their marriages, so Article 17 of Part 3 of the Second Schedule is invoked by the Registration Department to negate the fact that the father of their children is a Malaysian citizen. These children face all the problems described above.

An even more pitiful group are the abandoned children brought up in children’s homes. Though there are provisions in the Federal Constitution that provide citizenship by operation of law, this route is seldom utilised by the administrators of the homes or the Welfare Departments to obtain citizenship for these children.

These children who have already been damaged by the lack of family life and parental love, are also saddled with being stateless.

Whose interests do these amendments serve?

The Madani government must pause to ask themselves whose interest they are serving by making the route to citizenship even more difficult for these unfortunate children. It does not help the individuals or families affected by statelessness.

It does not in any way benefit ordinary Malaysian citizens to marginalise this group further and impede their acquisition of academic qualifications and/or vocational skills. It certainly does not help the national economy to enlarge the group of marginalised persons with poor skills.

So why is the Madani government so hell-bent on pushing through these amendments?

I can only think of one reason. There are some “little Napoleans” in the Home Ministry who have been affronted that a group of women took the matter to court and obtained an order to change their “SOP” of handling Malaysian women delivering children overseas.

Their power has been challenged. So, they need to send a message as to “who is the boss”. And this is their way of doing it.

But that begs the question – what is the home minister doing? Isn’t he the “boss”? He can easily split the amendments into two sets.

The amendment that addresses the issue of Malaysian women delivering overseas can be tabled in Parliament as soon as possible, while the other amendments can be referred to a committee for further analysis. The committee should ask the proposers of the other amendments how these benefit the nation.

But it looks as though the “tail is wagging the dog” at this point, and quite vigorously at that.

This is a significant inflection point in the trajectory of the Madani government. If the Madani government is unable to contain feudalistic and vindictive elements within the administration and pushes on with these mean-spirited amendments that further marginalise one of the most disadvantaged groups in our society, then perhaps it is time for the public to reconsider its political allegiance.

For PSM, this is a big red line, and we will be extremely unhappy if the Madani cabinet pushes through with these amendments despite the many appeals from NGOs and individuals.