PH blew it on citizenship matters, says Latheefa
PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan missed the opportunity, when in power, to resolve the problem of citizenship denied to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers, says human rights lawyer Latheefa Koya.
She said all the recent governments have failed on the issue.
In an interview with comedian Harith Iskandar, she said: “We are dealing with something that could have been sorted out, we had so many opportunities, but I don’t see political will.
“In 2018, we were very hopeful with Pakatan Harapan, that made a lot of promises. As soon as they got into power, we hoped some of these issues would be seen as a priority, you can change these things.
“Unfortunately, this didn’t happen,” she said on Harith’s What’s Going On Malaysia? show.
Latheefa, who served as head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission during the PH era, said the coalition’s 22 months in power should not be seen as an excuse because amendments to certain laws or policies would not take long.
She said the ministry for women, family and community development had the opportunity to amend the citizenship law so that there would be no difference in law whether the mother or father is a Malaysian citizen when it comes to deciding the citizenship of their children born overseas.
“That wasn’t done. In fact, nothing was done. And the issue is not new.”
Latheefa, who has gone back into practice, said she was “particularly sore” because the PH government had promised to deal with such issues. “It wasn’t just this issue (citizenship), but many issues actually,” she said, adding this included the abolition of the death penalty.
She said former de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong was passionate about removing the death penalty, but faced stumbling blocks within the government.
“All the oppressive laws that could have been abolished by tabling bills could have been done, I don’t know what’s the excuse. That’s the disappointment. It’s not like they did not know what to do, they promised it,” she said.
On another issue, Latheefa said there was a need to move on from the thinking that a messiah would save Malaysia by becoming prime minister.
She said the people must continue pushing for changes; societies had a role to play but must remove themselves from partisan politics.
“You can talk about politics but stay above it. It is not as if one group comprises angels and the other side are all devils. We have both sides. We should be able to decide in an informed manner at the next general election.” - FMT
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