“The National Registration Department is funded by taxpayers; and I do not believe that taxpayers want these Malaysian mothers to suffer. The NRD should be serving the people. We are looking at survivors of domestic violence; at parents who have been separated from their kids. If the Prime Minister is serious, he should instruct the Home Minister to follow his own slogan of #KeluargaMalaysia. We want to see these children’s suffering end,” — YB Hannah Yeoh, Member of Parliament for Segambut 

On 22 June 2022, the Court of Appeal heard further submissions by both parties on the Government’s appeal against the High Court decision in Suriani Kempe & Ors v Government of Malaysia & Ors. The Court has fixed 5 August 2022 to announce its decision.

Initially set for the announcement of the decision, the hearing was converted to a hearing for further submissions for both parties. This was following a submission made on 24 May 2022 by the Attorney-General Chambers, acting on behalf of the Government, to consider further arguments in line with a recent Federal Court judgement in Dhinesh a/p Tanaphll v Lembaga Pencegahan Jenayah & 2 Ors.

• The Goverment argued that the amendment made to Article 8(2) of the Federal Constitution in 2001—to include “gender” as a prohibited ground for discrimination—is “invalid” as Article 8 forms the “basic structure” of the Federal Constitution and hence cannot be amended. 
• He claimed that the entire Suriani Kempe case would collapse as the main arguments in the case were to harmoniously read Article 14(1)(b) ‘Citizenship by Registration’ and Article 8(2) to give meaning to the 2001 that prohibits gender discrimination.

In response, the legal counsels for Family Frontiers disagreed with that understanding of the Federal Court decision. They submitted that by looking at the Dhinesh case as a whole, amendments to the Federal Constitution are allowed provided that they are not inconsistent with the basic structure, and the fundamental identity of the Federal Constitution is not altered. Therefore improvements are allowed, as in the amendment to Article 8(2) in 2001. For more information, you may refer to this article.

It is shocking that the Government would rather invalidate an amendment made 21 years ago to prohibit gender discrimination than grant Malaysian women equal citizenship rights. Take action now by tweeting the Government through bit.ly/FFtwitterstorm! You can also financially contribute to sustain our efforts through bit.ly/DonateToFF.

If you wish to learn more about Malaysia’s unequal citizenship laws, you can access this resource pack we’ve put together that offers a plethora of information and posts that you can help share far and wide: bit.ly/FFSpeakUpNow.