The Federal Constitution is supposed to be the supreme law of the land. It is therefore quite
upsetting when senior officers of the National Registration Office seem to not understand some
of the fundamental constitutional provisions pertaining to citizenship.
This glaring deficiency came to light when the PSM helped Ms K, a 30 year old lady submit an
application for citizenship about five years ago. The facts of the case are as follows
- Ms K was born in Ipoh GH in 1995 and has a Birth Certificate attesting to that
- But Ms K’s mother, Mdm A, did not have any documents – no birth certificate or identity card.
Mdm A’s parents were poor and ignorant, so they didn’t register the births of all 3 of their
children. Mdm A’s mum held a red identity card and her children would have been
automatically granted Malaysian citizenship had she registered their birth. Mdm A died in 2017
without ever registering her birth. - Mdm M, the younger sister of Mdm A, was looked after by some relatives after the death of
M’s parents. These relative managed to register her birth, and on the basis of M’s mother’s
documents, M was registered as a citizen. - We did a DNA analysis of M and K and established that M is indeed K’s aunt.
- we then applied to the Registration Office in Meru Ipoh for a correction to K’s Birth Certificate to change her citizenship status to “citizen”.
Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution (FC) states that “every person born on or after
Merdeka Day, and having any of the qualifications specified in Part II of the Second Schedule”, is
a citizen by operation of law. We argued that Ms K met 2 of the five qualifying conditions, that
is 1(a) and 1(e).
1(a) of Part II of Schedule Two of the FC states that “every person born within the Federation of
whose parents one at least is at the time of birth a citizen or permanent resident of the
Federation”. We argued that, Mdm A was, by law, a citizen of Malaysia given that Mdm A’s
mother was a Permanent Resident in Malaysia. As such, Ms K should be accorded citizenship as
Mdm A was eligible for it. Mdm A was not deprived of her citizenship for any treasonous or
criminal activity. Her family just failed to apply because of poverty, ignorance and apathy.
We then went on to argue that if the application based on 1(a), Part II of the Second Schedule
could not be accepted, then Ms K should be awarded citizenship on the basis of 1(e), Part II
Second Schedule. 1(e) states that “every person born within the Federation (after Malaysia Day)who is not born a citizen of any (other) country” should be granted citizenship by operation of
law.
We argued that since Ms K’s maternal grandmother was a permanent resident of Malaya and
Ms K’s father was a blue IC holder, Ms K had no legal basis to claim citizenship from any other
country. (By the way, Ms K’s father’s citizenship status could not be used to obtain citizenship
for Ms K because her patents did not (could not) register their marriage as Mdm A had no
documents.)
We were therefore unhappy and surprised when the Ipoh Registration Office rejected Ms K
application for citizenship. We had no alternative but to take it to Court. A lawyer friend, Mr
Robin Lim, kindly agreed to conduct this case pro-bono and he filed a Judial Review in Ipoh High
Court. On October 2025, the Ipoh High Court ruled in favour of Ms K stating that she is eligible
for citizenship under both 1(a) and 1(e) of Part II, Second Schedule.
However, to our deep disappointment the National Registration Office decided to appeal the
decision of the Ipoh High Court. At that point I messaged the Home Minister, a good friend from
the Reformasi era. But, despite sending all the relevant documents, and a couple of reminders,
the matter remains unresolved.
The Appeal Court hearing is fixed for 9am, 3 rd August 2026, at Putrajaya. We are keeping our
fingers crossed.
But, and this is important, the Registration Department has displayed the same unsympathetic
and legally erroneous stance in several other similar cases leading to the prolongation of the
marginalization and suffering of the individuals classified as stateless. These individuals are
unable to go to government school or to vocational college. They are unable to work in the
formal sector. They can’t get a driving license or open a bank account. Their stateless situation
blights almost every aspect of their lives. It leads to inter-generational transfer of poverty. How
does tormenting these unfortunate individuals help the country or any ethnic group within it?
It is high time the Madani government organizes a refresher course for the National
Registration Department officers deciding on citizenship applications. They need to act in a
more humane and responsible manner in dealing with these cases.
Jeyakumar Devaraj
Chairperson
Parti Sosialis Malaysia
2 August 2026