Rep: Don’t appeal court decision on child given citizenship

Irene Chang

SIBU (Oct 29): Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang urges minister in-charge of the special committee on citizenship in Sarawak to urge the Home Ministry to refrain from appealing against the latest court decision allowing citizenship for a child born out of wedlock to a Malaysian father and a foreigner mother in Malaysia.

In a statement yesterday, she said proactive and positive actions had to be taken by the special committee to convey the support of the court decision rather than just waiting passively for directive from the Home Ministry.

“It has to be conveyed to the Home Ministry to take very serious note of the court decisions of the citizenship cases which were brought to the courts lately.

“They have to remember that the judiciary is the third branch of government, which operates independently of the executive and legislative.

“The three branches of the government are given substantive power and each branch is expected to substantially check and balance the exercise of the powers of the other two,” she said.

She also said it was gratifying that in the recent court decisions, the judiciary had taken the bold stand to take the less travelled road of granting citizenship to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses (albeit pending appeal by the government) and the latest case of granting citizenship to a child born out of wedlock to a Malaysian father with a foreigner partner in Malaysia.

“These are landmark cases which indicate what the judiciary thinks should be the way forward to resolve the increasing cases of stateless children in the country.

“Of utmost importance is that the decisions were based on sound legal arguments and legislations tempered with a healthy dose of practical considerations to achieve justice for the faultless children,” she said, adding the judiciary had obviously spoken through these cases.

The question now, she said is whether the executive under the Perikatan Nasional government is ready to follow the indicated direction.

“Or would it reject the way pointed out by the judiciary and continue to grapple blindly in the dark.

“And the meantime, to clock up increasing numbers of stateless persons in the country without any compunction toward children who found themselves in these man-made wolf pits?”

She added Sarawak too had sizable number of cases which fall into the two categories as the two cases taken to court, in particular, the case of a child born out of wedlock.

She said if these cases were appealed against by the government, then many families in Sarawak would not be spared the anguish and distress of going through the tedious citizenship applications with little chance of success.

She said the court cases had set a precedent which should be followed unreservedly by the executive branch of the government.

She believed that if the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government had just an iota of intention to reduce statelessness among children in the state, then it should, without any delay, convey firmly to the federal government of the wisdom to follow the lead of the judiciary.

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