Court allows Perak-born woman aged 67 to challenge Home Ministry’s rejection of citizenship bid

Based on an affidavit or sworn document filed in court, the woman said she was born in 1955 — which is both before Merdeka Day and before Malaysia Day — in Hospital Teluk Anson in Perak, but was abandoned by her biological mother and was raised by her adoptive parents. — File picture by Razak Ghazali

Her story and struggle to be a Malaysian

Malay Mail is withholding the names of the woman and her family members, due to privacy reasons.

Based on an affidavit or sworn document filed in court, the woman said she was born in 1955 — which is both before Merdeka Day and before Malaysia Day — in Hospital Teluk Anson in Perak, but was abandoned by her biological mother and was raised by her adoptive parents.

She has no records of her biological parents’ nationality at all and only knows their names from her birth certificate, and does not know them at all.

Both her adoptive parents are Malaysians and they had cared for her as if she was their own child since birth, and had legally adopted her when she was nine. They are now deceased.

She was married in 1974 to her husband who was stateless but held a permanent resident status, and they had seven children who were born in the years from 1975 to 1992.

While her husband later died in 2016 as a stateless person, all their seven children are Malaysians.

The woman said she had never thought about her own citizenship status throughout those years as she was fully focused on raising her children, and had only applied to the NRD in March 2007 for permanent resident status when her youngest child had grown up.

After successfully obtaining the status of permanent resident in April 2007, she applied to the NRD on December 19, 2017, for Malaysian citizenship by naturalisation under Article 19 of the Federal Constitution. She also attended a Bahasa Melayu test by the NRD that same month but did not receive any further information after that test.

Five years later, the Home Ministry issued a letter dated August 23, 2022, to inform her that the Home Minister had decided to reject her 2017 application for Malaysian citizenship through naturalisation. The letter did not give any reasons for the rejection.

Having lived her entire life in Malaysia throughout these 67 years and not holding any citizenship from any country, the woman highlighted that she has suffered emotionally as her friends and neighbours had mocked her for being of “Bukan Warganegara” status or status of not being Malaysian.

She said she had also been frequently ridiculed as being a foreigner and has been unable to live a normal life like others as she is not a Malaysian.

She believes she should be granted Malaysian citizenship as she fulfills the conditions under Article 19 of the Federal Constitution for citizenship by naturalisation.

Under Article 19, the Malaysian government “may” grant a certificate of naturalisation to anyone aged 21 and above who applies for such citizenship, if the government is satisfied that the conditions have been met.

The Article 19 conditions are that the applicant has to be of “good character”, has “adequate knowledge” of the Malay language, and has lived in Malaysia for at least 10 years — within the 12 years before applying for citizenship via naturalisation — and intends to live permanently in Malaysia if the certificate of naturalisation is given.

Following the Home Ministry’s August 2022 rejection of her citizenship bid, the woman filed this lawsuit, seeking eight specific court orders, including a declaration that the Home Ministry’s decision in the August 23, 2022 letter is null and void and an order to quash that decision.

She is also asking the court to declare that she is a Malaysian citizen by naturalisation under either Article 19(1) or Article 19(2), or that she is a Malaysian citizen by operation of law under Article 14(1)(a) and the Section 1(1)(a) of Part I of the Federal Constitution’s Second Schedule.

She is seeking a court order to compel the government to issue a certificate of Malaysian citizenship and a MyKad to her, and for a declaration that she has legitimate expectations to have the status of being a Malaysian citizen and rights as a citizen, and to be compensated over the government’s alleged unconstitutional conduct in refusing her citizenship application.