KOTA KINABALU: The landmark decision by the Kuala Lumpur High Court that Malaysian mothers have the right to confer citizenship on their children born overseas is wise, says Sabah Wanita MCA chief Dr Pamela Yong (pic).

       This, she said, affirms that Malaysian women are of equal status and hold equal rights to Malaysian men.

       However, she said it was also time to consider enacting or amending legislation to allow citizenship conferment on illegitimate or adopted children born abroad as well.

       Dr Yong said this is because the High Court’s ruling only applies to couples who have legally tied the knot.

       “As the verdict does not apply to unwed couples, the child is deemed illegitimate. Therefore, legislation must be amended or enacted to cover these categories of innocent children caught in a limbo who may end up stateless,” she said.

       Apart from that, these children would end up carrying the stigma of having been conceived before their parents’ marriage through no fault of theirs, she said.

       Dr Yong suggested that children who were legally adopted when the married couple were abroad and whose parents underwent a customary wedding or whose nuptials have not been officially solemnised to be included in the amended legislation.

       She said the permission should be given when the non-Malaysian partner deserts the relationship and abandons their child with the Malaysian parent residing abroad, too.

       “The condition remains that at least one parent must be Malaysian irrespective of gender or marital status,” she said.

       Dr Yong’s statement came following a landmark decision by the High Court declaring that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers married to foreigners are entitled by operation of law to be Malaysian citizens.

       Counsel Datuk Dr Gurdial Singh Nijar had said Justice Akhtar Tahir ruled that Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution must also mean and include mothers.

       He said the judge came to this verdict after a harmonious reading of several Articles in the Constitution.

       He said the judge also made an order that the authorities must issue relevant documents, like identity cards, to these children in recognition of this effect.

       The court made the ruling via online proceedings after allowing a legal suit filed by the Association of Family Support & Welfare Selangor & Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) and six Malaysian women married to foreigners for their overseas-born children to have the right to become Malaysian citizens, which was first filed in 2018.