Citizenship Law In Malaysia

CHAPTER 2 : LEGAL BACKGROUND

A citizen is where a person owing his allegiance to the country and entitled to a protection from the government to exercise his civil rights. The main legislation that regulates the rule of citizenship is Citizenship Rules 1964. However, the citizenship law is still based on the Constitution of Malaysia. According to the Malaysian Constitution, Malaysia does not recognize dual citizenship. Citizenship law was first implemented in several Malaysian states before the country achieved independence and sovereignty. The Straits Settlements, consisting of Penang, Malacca, Singapore and later Labuan, was the first entity to introduce nationality law in the region. The Naturalization Act of 1867 stated that:

“Any

The person may loss his citizenship (1) voluntarily apply foreign citizenship, (2) registered or naturalized citizen, (3) shows disloyalty to the country and government of Malaysia, a naturalized or registered citizen can have his citizenship revoked under Article 25 of the Federal Constitution, if he has “shown himself by act or speech to be disloyal or disaffected” towards the country. A citizenship can also be revoked if he is found to have assisted the enemy in a war, or if he, within the first five years of being granted citizenship, has been sentenced (in any country) to jail for not less than 12 months, or fined not less than RM5,000 (or the equivalent in the currency of that country), and has not received a free pardon.(4) works for foreign government without the permission from government of Malaysia, (5) resides continuously abroad for 5 years without registering with the Embassies, Alternatively, if he has resided outside the country for a continuous period of five years and has not, at any time, “been in the service of the Federation” or registered annually at a consulate of the Federation his intention to retain his citizenship, his citizenship can be revoked and (6) the citizenship obtain through fraud or false statement

Jus Soli according to Oxford Dictionary of Law is the rule by which birth in a state is sufficient to confer nationality, irrespective of the nationality of one’s parents. In other words, this principle accepts anyone who is born in Tanah Melayu as a citizen even if his parents are not citizens of Tanah Melayu. For example, since ‘jus soli’ was adopted during the British colonization era, Chinese and the Indians became Tanah Melayu citizens even though they were originally from China and