Don T Appeal Respect Citizenship Ruling Selangor Exco Writes To Pm

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Selangor executive councillor V Ganabatirau has written a letter of protest to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob over the move to appeal against the High Court decision that struck out discriminatory treatment of Malaysian mothers with overseas-born children.
The matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Home Affairs Ministry.
Ganabatirau (above) told Malaysiakini that the letter was sent to the prime minister on Sept 17.
“As the exco for socio-economic development, welfare and caring government, the Selangor state government is asking the federal government to respect the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court and not to appeal the ruling.
“This is to uphold justice for the women citizens in Malaysia who have been affected all this while from an interpretation of the law that does not reflect equality.
“I also implore the government to start working on a draft action plan and the amendments to the relevant laws to implement the ruling of the court,” he said.




Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob
The letter was sent after the government filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal to dismiss the Kuala Lumpur High Court decision on Sept 9 that a constitutional provision, which only granted automatic citizenship to overseas-born children if the father is Malaysian but not if the mother is Malaysian, was discriminatory.
The court ruled that Malaysian mothers and fathers with foreign spouses should be accorded the same benefit.
Aside from the prime minister, Ganabatirau also sent a letter to Home Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainudin, de facto Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and Attorney-General Idrus Harun.
“The excuse given by Hamzah had no basis and was unfair.
“If the excuse of dual citizenship is used to reject the citizenship of children born to Malaysian mothers, can this excuse be used for children born to Malaysian fathers also?
“Isn’t this clearly a form of gender discrimination that contradicts the Federal Constitution?” he asked. - Mkini

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