Sabahan, teenager get citizenship after government failed to get leave to pursue appeal

PUTRAJAYA: The legal battle by a Sabah-born man and a 16-year-old girl to be given Malaysian citizenship is finally over as they are now recognised as Malaysian citizens.

This followed a decision by the Federal Court three-member panel today in dismissing the government's application for leave (permission) to pursue its appeals to prevent the two individuals from getting Malaysian citizenship.

In the case of the Sabah-born man Wong Kueng Hui, the panel led by Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim found that the application for leave to appeal by the director-general of the National Registration Department (NRD), the Home Ministry and the government of Malaysia did not fulfil the threshold requirement under Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.

Justice Abang Iskandar, who sat with Federal Court judges Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang and Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah, said even if leave was granted, it had little chance of success on the merits.

Wong, was born in 1995 at Hospital Keningau, Sabah, to a Sarawakian man and a woman, believed to be a foreigner. His father died when he was 10 years old, while his mother, seven years later.

In his judicial review application, Wong said he did not have any documents on his mother's identification except that she was of Indonesian descent.

He had sought information from the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, but there was no such record of his mother registered as an Indonesian citizen.

He also checked with the Phillippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur but there was also no record of his mother being a citizen of that country.

Wong, 27, won his bid for citizenship in the High Court in 2019 after the court held that he was a stateless person.

The Court of Appeal, in a majority ruling, upheld the High Court's decision prompting the NRD director-general, Home Minister and the Malaysian government to file leave for appeal.

Meanwhile, the same panel of judges also dismissed a similar application by the Home Ministry secretary-general, the NRD director-general and the government of Malaysia' to proceed with their appeal in the case of a 16-year-old girl who was born in Perak to a Malaysian father and a Filipino mother.

Her application to obtain citizenship was rejected as she was considered illegitimate because her parents' marriage was registered after her birth. Her father had subsequently obtained a declaration of legitimacy from the High Court in 2018 to declare his daughter a legitimate child of him and his wife.

Both the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled in her favour in her application to be declared a Malaysian citizen.

Meanwhile, Azimah Hamzah, a 35-year-old woman, who was born to a Muslim couple from Cambodia in a refugee camp in Cherating, Pahang, succeeded in getting leave to appeal at the Federal Court to be given Malaysian citizenship, following her unsuccessful attempts at the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Azimah, who contended that she is a stateless person with no Cambodian citizenship and has been living in Malaysia all the while wants to be given automatic citizenship under Article 14 (1) (b) of the Federal Constitution.

She claimed that both her parents and four siblings had obtained Malaysian citizenship.

Justice Abang Iskandar granted leave to Azimah to appeal on one question of law on whether a child born of refugee parents who have acquired Malaysian citizenship is entitled to be registered as a Malaysian citizen as provided under Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

The panel heard all three appeals separately today via online.

A team of lawyers led by Haijan Omar represented Wong, Annou Xavier and Larissa Ann Louis were counsel for the teenager and a team of lawyers led by Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram acted for Azimah.

Senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin represented the government in Wong and the teenager's case, while senior federal counsel Nik Mohd Noor Nik Kar appeared for the government in Azimah's case.

-- BERNAMA