Malaysian government postpones vote on controversial citizenship amendments

Children born overseas to Malaysian mothers will have to wait longer to know if they qualify for automatic citizenship, after the government postponed a controversial citizenship amendment bill that activists say could trigger a wave of statelessness in the country. The government on Thursday postponed for a second time the debate on a bill seeking to amend citizenship provisions in the federal constitution, which would allow Malaysian women to pass on citizenship to their foreign-born children. [ . . . ] Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration had earlier postponed a parliamentary debate on the bill in March following severe public backlash over proposed provisions that would have done away with automatic citizenship for foundlings and abandoned children. Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution had earlier said the government needed to tighten the country’s citizenship criteria as existing laws were open to abuse from the 3.5 million foreigners living in Malaysia. Saifuddin told parliament on March 11 that there have been cases of foreigners abandoning their babies in the knowledge that they would receive automatic citizenship. The Malaysian cabinet later rejected the proposal to require such children to apply for citizenship.
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