PKR student wing vice-chief quits over citizenship amendments

Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia vice-chief Yap Xiang says he submitted his letter of resignation to the party shortly after the amendments were approved.

(FMT) – The vice-chief of PKR’s student wing, Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia, has resigned from the party after the Dewan Rakyat passed controversial amendments to the constitution’s citizenship provisions.

In a post on X this evening, Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia vice-chief Yap Xiang said he had submitted his resignation letter, shortly after the amendments were approved.

In later posts, he slammed the home ministry over its engagement sessions on the constitutional amendment bill, saying it was nothing more than to meet the basic requirement of consulting stakeholders.

He had attended the sessions representing the wing.

“I tried my best to ask questions during and after these engagements with the home ministry and national registration department officials, but I was given silly answers like, ‘There are no stateless Orang Asli anymore, just migrants pretending to be stateless.’

“My point is that these supposed engagement sessions were not to listen to the proposals of NGOs. They were held simply to fulfill the criteria,” he said.

The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2024, which will next be brought to the Dewan Negara, aims to grant citizenship to overseas-born children of Malaysian women.

However, the bill included other proposed amendments that was criticised by various groups, particularly those from Sabah and Sarawak.

They said a proposal to remove automatic citizenship for children born to Malaysian permanent residents would worsen matters for stateless people in Sabah, and hinder their access to education, health services and employment.

PKR’s student wing took part in a rally in front of Parliament in March to protest the initial iteration of the bill.