Dymm Sultan Of Johor Speaks Up For The People Again

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 My view is the DYMM Sultan of Johor could run for Prime Minister and win. For one reason only. The Sultan always speaks about the people. 
In Malaysia this is a rarity. The politicians speak about themselves, about 'their' government, they defend their really foolish policies but they rarely speak directly about the people. 
This is what makes a big difference between what the Sultan says and what the politicians say. 
Recently the Court has ruled that Malaysian children born overseas to Malaysian mothers should become citizens automatically.  Previously this was not allowed.
Then in reply the Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said this :



This was a negative reply by Hamzah Zainuddin towards the Court ruling.  
I really do not condone the Judge in the Courts "legislating from the Bench". My view is anything about laws and legislation must go through Parliament and the State Legislatures.
In the concept of separation of powers, Parliament passes the Laws and the Judges/Courts enforce the Laws. The Courts do not make Laws.
However the Courts do have the huge responsibility of interpreting the Laws. This includes the Court's responsibility to determine if the Laws passed by Parliament / State Legislatures do or do not contradict the Federal Constitution (ultra vires) and basic human rights (which the Courts have often failed to do in Malaysia).   
But this time around the Courts have done the right thing by basically ruling that a child born overseas to Malaysian mothers residing overseas automatically becomes a Malaysian citizen.    
As can be expected the  Minister Hamzah Zainuddin is unhappy with the Courts ruling. 
HRH the Sultan of Johor, who obviously reads the newspapers and knows what is going on in the country, has made a strong statement in agreement with the Courts ruling. Here is the news :






PETALING JAYA: Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar today urged the government to abort its plans to appeal the recent High Court decision allowing citizenship rights to children born overseas, regardless of whether the Malaysian parent is the father or mother.
Sultan Ibrahim said all children born to Malaysian parents abroad must be accorded the right to citizenship in this country.
“The sanctity of the courts must be upheld. Why discriminate against Malaysian mothers with overseas-born children?
“This is a basic right of every child, irrespective of whether the Malaysian parent is the father or mother.
“It doesn’t feel right that Malaysian fathers and mothers are viewed differently in the eyes of the law concerning their child’s citizenship.
“Are Malaysian mothers less Malaysian than Malaysian fathers?” he asked in a statement today.
The High Court ruling on Sept 9 came after six Malaysian women and the family support group, Family Frontiers, filed the suit in December against certain provisions of the Federal Constitution which they said were discriminatory.
Before the judgemet, the provisions in the constitution were said to allow only the father to pass on his citizenship to his children born outside the federation.



My comments :
The Minister Hamzah Zainuddin is also confused by the racial politics in the country and also his ignorance of the laws and rules in other countries.
Hamzah says we do not recognise dual citizenships. Ok maybe Malaysia does not recognise dual citizenships but there may be other countries that do not care as much. 
But how does any country check this? 
I know cases of Malaysians who migrated overseas and became citizens of another country. But they never denounced their Malaysian citizenship. So how do you monitor this? 
These Malaysians also kept their Malaysian ICs.  Then what happened was that many years later some of them chose to return to Malaysia.  They re-entered Malaysia using their foreign passport. Then once they are here they went to the Jabatan Pendaftaran and just renewed their ICs. (Or they may have already renewed their ICs when they came back for holidays). As long as they have their "blue" ICs, they are still citizens of Malaysia. Plus they also have their Malaysian birth certificates.
(So to all Malaysians living overseas, including those who have become citizens of other countries - just make sure you keep your Malaysian IC and your Malaysian birth certificate. And if needed renew your IC when you come back for holidays.)
The fact is the other countries may not care if you denounced your previous citizenship or not. (They may not have any mechanism for immigrants to denounce their previous citizenship.  Borang tak ada.)
So how do you actually "control" this 'dual citizenship'? It is a waste of time.  
But coming back to the statement by HRH the Sultan of Johor, why discriminate between Malaysian mothers and Malaysian fathers?
A Malaysian father can register his foreign born child as a citizen but a Malaysian mother (who gave birth to the child) cannot?? 
Punyalah bodoh.
Kepada Menteri Hamzah Zainuddin, how does the Malaysian Embassy overseas determine that a Malaysian man is really the father of a child born overseas? 
What if the fellow brings someone else's baby and says 'this is my baby'. Do you do DNA testing? 
But the mother must be carrying the baby. Why? Because she has to feed the baby. 
So even if you want to discriminate against anyone, the correct person to discriminate against is the father. Not the mother.
Here is another situation. Say a Malaysian father has a wife living overseas who is not a citizen. The wife gives birth to a baby overseas. As soon as he hears about his new baby, the Malaysian father goes to the local Balai Polis and "reports" the birth of the baby - he uses his address in the kampong. The Balai Polis issues a birth certificate. The baby is not even here. 
But lets face the facts ok - we have these silly and complicated rules of citizenship to "control" the citizenship of 'non Malays' in the country.
Now we have many Malaysians men and women of all races (Malays, other bumiputeras, Chinese, Indians etc)  travelling overseas, living overseas, getting married overseas, working overseas, studying overseas etc.  So now the problem affects all Malaysians.
But before the Dasar Ekonomi Baru this problem was mainly inflicted upon the non-Malays. Many Indians for example had wives in India. The Indian  wives and their children (although born to a Malaysian Indian father) were not allowed to obtain Malaysian citizenship. The idea at that time was to restrict or control the number of non-Malay population in this country. (This policy changed some, after UMNO lost the 2/3 majority in 2008).
But it was OK if you were an Indonesian or a Suluk or a Rohingya or even a Bangladeshi. As long as Indonesians could swim across the Straits of Melaka, they were quite welcome here. In Sabah the Suluks from the Philippines were also "recognised" as Malaysians. It was a purely racial thing. 
One previous Minister of Home Affairs wanted to give his brother the 'APs' to import 1.5 million Banglas. But now, despite taking in so many Indonesians, Suluks, Rohingyas and even Banglas as citizens or PRs in the country the UMNO dumbnos still lost the elections.  
Now, the UMNO dumbnos remain in power with the 'assistance' of the DAP which is considered a "pendatang Chinese" dominated party. 
Jadi Umno hilang kuasa bukan sebab depa TAK BAGI citizenship kepada bebudak Indon, Rohingya dan Bangla. Sebenarnya UMNO hilang kuasa sebab mereka telah bagi citizenship kepada Indon, Rohingya dan Bangla. Majoriti pengundi Malaysia (terutama sekali orang Melayu) tidak setuju dasar bodoh Umno.
Hamzah boleh faham ke? So Hamzah, awak pergi lah 'appeal' kepada Mahkamah. Percayalah lagi ramai pengundi akan menolak UMNO pada PRU akan datang lagi.
DYMM Sultan Johor pun tak setuju dasar-dasar  awak.
For sure pengundi pun tak setuju.
Artikel ini adalah pandangan penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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