Why is tracing birth parents essential for citizenship under current Malaysian law?

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Tracing Birth Parents as a Prerequisite for Malaysian Citizenship Claims

The Malaysian government's stance is that individuals seeking to claim citizenship by birth, particularly those with unknown parentage, must first endeavour to locate and identify their biological parents. This requirement stems from the need to ascertain the parents' citizenship status, which in turn determines whether the applicant has automatically acquired citizenship of another country by descent. Without this crucial information, the government argues, an applicant cannot definitively establish their statelessness, a prerequisite for invoking certain constitutional provisions that protect against statelessness.
Constitutional Provisions and Statelessness Definition

At the heart of the matter lies Section 1(e) of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution. This provision is designed to prevent statelessness among individuals born in Malaysia who are not citizens of any other nation. However, the government contends that the mere fact of being born in Malaysia and being unable to locate birth parents does not automatically qualify an individual for citizenship under this clause. It is argued that the applicant must first demonstrate that they are genuinely stateless, meaning they do not hold citizenship of any country, before this protective clause can be applied.
The Government's Argument on Parental Citizenship

The core of the government's argument is that the citizenship status of one's birth parents is determinative. If the birth parents are citizens of another country, then by extension, the child would likely be considered a citizen of that same country, thereby negating the claim of statelessness. Therefore, the onus is placed on the applicant, such as Gopal Muniandy, to undertake all reasonable steps to trace their lineage. This is seen as a necessary step to rule out any existing foreign citizenship before the Malaysian legal framework can consider granting citizenship based on birth within Malaysia and the absence of any other nationality.
Challenges for Abandoned Individuals

For individuals like Gopal, who were abandoned as young children and have no knowledge of their biological parents, this requirement presents a significant hurdle. Gopal, abandoned at the age of two in an estate in Kedah, has exhausted all avenues, including returning to his place of abandonment, obtaining statutory declarations from those who knew him as a child, and placing newspaper advertisements. Despite these efforts, his biological parents remain unknown. The legal argument presented is that it is an impossible burden to require such individuals to identify parents when no traceable lineage exists, and that they have no other country to claim citizenship from.

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Why is tracing birth parents essential for citizenship under current Malaysian law?

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