COMMENT | Madani's amendment will create generational underclass

“This didn't happen in 1963. However, now with 3.5 million migrants here, it has changed the landscape of our country’s composition. So, this amendment we are going to propose is to prepare us.” - Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail

COMMENT | The opening quote is the key, you see. This is all about the “country’s composition” in a changing geopolitical landscape. This is also about a political ideology borne not out of democratic principles but rather fascistic ideas.

This is why the amendment changes “operation by law” to “citizenship by registration”, which essentially means that a class of bureaucrats from the low levels to the upper echelons would determine the destinies of children and foundlings instead of fidelity to the constitution.

As it is, these factotums of the state are mired in all kinds of racial and religious imperatives that make it extremely difficult for stateless children and foundlings to be recognised as citizens of the state.

This is an issue that has been going on for decades. As it is, we have enough Malaysians who are having it rough because successive elected governments are more interested in maintaining power through race and religion than in actually formulating policies that would help all Malaysians.