In just 24 hours, 10,000 sign Malaysian mothers’ petition to ask PM to drop appeal against citizenship recognition for their children
Family Frontiers, which had together with six Malaysian mothers won the lawsuit on Thursday last week, said it was ‘appalling’ that the government had made the move to appeal the court decision. — Picture courtesy of Family Frontiers
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Malaysian mothers who are seeking to maintain a High Court’s recognition of their children as Malaysian citizens have found strong support for their online petition to the government, with 10,000 persons signing in about 24 hours.
Yesterday, Malaysian mothers experienced a setback in their journey of many years to have the country finally recognise that their children born abroad too can be called Malaysians.
The Malaysian government had yesterday filed an appeal against a landmark court decision.
The appeal was filed just days after the High Court’s historic September 9 decision, which said the Federal Constitution’s citizenship provisions should not discriminate against Malaysian mothers and that their children born overseas too could be citizens by operation of law.
The court ruling had effectively removed a decades-long inequality that allowed Malaysian fathers with foreign spouses to pass on their citizenship to children born outside of Malaysia, but denied the same right to Malaysian mothers married to foreigners.
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Malaysian mothers who are seeking to maintain a High Court’s recognition of their children as Malaysian citizens have found strong support for their online petition to the government, with 10,000 persons signing in about 24 hours.
Yesterday, Malaysian mothers experienced a setback in their journey of many years to have the country finally recognise that their children born abroad too can be called Malaysians.
The Malaysian government had yesterday filed an appeal against a landmark court decision.
The appeal was filed just days after the High Court’s historic September 9 decision, which said the Federal Constitution’s citizenship provisions should not discriminate against Malaysian mothers and that their children born overseas too could be citizens by operation of law.
The court ruling had effectively removed a decades-long inequality that allowed Malaysian fathers with foreign spouses to pass on their citizenship to children born outside of Malaysia, but denied the same right to Malaysian mothers married to foreigners.
The basic principle is to remove the gender discrimination.
ReplyDeleteAll other conditions attached through existing citizenship laws remain.
The Government really needs to explain the legal principles why they are being so hard-headed, other than simply out of spite "the Government must win".
Some years ago, my chat with retired government lawyers showed it is sometimes just that - the Government often appeals cases simply because "must win" , even when the people involved realise should not appeal in the interest of justice.
Except where there is Ruling Party political agenda to "deliberately drop" cases.