PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Constitution amendment involving citizenship will be done comprehensively to eliminate the practice of granting automatic citizenship to foreigners residing in the country beyond a certain period.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said this was important to deal with the country's growing population as a result of the practice.
"Previously, Sabah, through a decision by the National Security Council, allowed those who had resided for more than 30 years to be granted citizenship. But this was under (former prime minister) Tun Dr Mahathir (Mohamad).
"Following this, individuals who have resided (in the country) between 15 and 30 years can be given permanent resident (status) and children born from these parents can be given citizenship.
"This has contributed to Sabah's population and we are facing difficulties until now. There are too many people so we want such practices to be stopped," he said during a media interview yesterday.
Saifuddin also said that a comprehensive amendment to the Constitution would provide for the citizenship application of children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.
He said the proposal on the amendment had been presented to the cabinet yesterday and would be presented to the Council of Malay Rulers on July 12. The amendment would be tabled in Parliament by year end if consent is given.
"The government also wants to include that by age 18, a child who is given (Malaysian) citizenship and has foreign citizenship has to only choose.
"This is because we do not recognise dual citizenship and there is no need to wait until they turn 21."
Commenting further, Saifuddin said 260 citizenship applications for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers had been processed, of which 13 were rejected.
In some cases, he said, the rejection was because the mother was already a citizen of another country.
"When we say citizenship by law, the right understanding is that it is not automatically given as there is no country that grants automatic citizenship to foreigners. They still have to go through a normal application process."