Harmonise reading of contradicting laws, Family Frontiers urges

SHAH ALAM - The government disagrees with the harmonious reading of Article 8 (2) and Article 14 (1) (b) since the result at large will be the same as rewriting the constitution, Family Frontiers says.

Its president Suri Kempe shared their work where they supported the Malaysian mothers’ fight for equal citizenship rights where they filed in court that there were two contradicting provisions in the Federal Constitution that should be harmonised.

“We filed in court that there are two conflicting provisions in the Federal Constitution, in which Article 8 (2) which protects all citizens from gender-based discrimination and the other provision that says women cannot confer citizenship.

“What we ask of the court was to harmonise the seemingly contradicting provisions - one that says we protect from gender discrimination and the other that says women cannot confer their citizenship to their foreign-born children,” she said.

She said this during the show entitled ‘Sexist Citizenship Law: What’s Next?’ that went live yesterday.

Also featured as panellists during the show were former Home Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto and impacted mother Rachel Ng, who discussed the need for the country to aspire for gender equality by ending sexist citizenship laws.

She said the High Court agreed to harmonise the reading.

The result of these two provisions read harmoniously was that women could confer citizenship to their children born overseas.

However, the government disagreed and they filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal.

She further updated that on Aug 5, the majority decision 2 - 1 favoured the government which stated that the court had no jurisdiction to reinterpret the Federal Constitution to provide a harmonious reading to these two contradicting provisions because the result at large would be akin to rewriting the constitution.

Family Frontiers is a non-government organisation that focuses on making a contribution to support the Malaysian mothers in fighting for equal citizenship rights.

On Aug 5, it was reported that the Court of Appeal had decided in a split vote that Malaysian mothers can legally deny citizenship to their children born abroad.

Azizah Nawawi and Bench Chairman Kamaludin Md Said were in the majority, with S Nantha Balan voting against them.

Article 14(1)(b) of Malaysia’s constitution gives fathers the automatic right to confer citizenship on their children born abroad – but omits any mention of mothers.

The majority agreed that the term 'father' in the Second Schedule of Part 11 of the Federal Constitution only applied to the biological father and could not be interpreted to refer to the mother or parents.

Kamaludin and Azizah stated that it was up to Parliament, not the court, to amend the constitution while claiming they adhered to the legal guidelines of a Federal Court decision issued last year.

The ruling was made in favour of the government, the home minister and the director-general of the national registration department (JPN), who appeared as appellants and respondents in two cases.