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Sunday, March 26, 2017

NRD, AG asked why DNA match not enough for stateless kids



A citizen's group - Freedom - has asked the National Registration Department (NRD) why it is not accepting "incontrovertible evidence" of a DNA match for establishing parental relationship.
Spokesperson for Freedom N Ganesan asked what more is required from the affected children to gain their guaranteed right for citizenship.
He asked why is the NRD not seeking advice from the Attorney-General’s Office to interpret the law appropriately.
"Or is the Attorney-General’s Office of the same opinion?" he asked in a statement today.
Irrelevant reasons
He was referring to the case of three siblings - Suriya, 12, Agilandeswari, 11, and Thuaranayagi, 10, from Penang who are allegedly being denied citizenship.
Ganesan said their Malaysian father M Vengadeswaran had tried to redress the issue for years but was "stubbornly and unjustly" rejected by the government.
He claimed that the NRD had given " irrelevant reasons" to justify their action.
"The marriage of the parents of these children was not registered and their mother who is Indonesian by nationality left them and went away," Ganesan explained.
"Using these as reasons the NRD continues to deny these children their constitutionally guaranteed right," Ganesan said.
These children are being raised by their father, 44, who is a single parent, Ganesan noted.
The father performed a DNA matching in 2016 to establish his paternal relationship to provide absolute and incontrovertible evidence of his paternity.
This he did successfully through the government's Jabatan Kimia in June 2016, Ganesan said.
However, without the presence of the mother, the NRD officers in Penang and Putrajaya turned him away, despite the DNA match report, Ganesan claimed.
"The officers of the NRD are acting in utter violation of the Federal Constitution, knowingly or incompetently unknowingly and using various irrelevant parts of the law to block what is a guaranteed constitutional provision for these children," Ganesan said.
Federal Constitution states one parent enough
He cited the Federal Constitution - Part II Second Schedule [Article 14(1)(b)] which states that (a) every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least is at time of the birth either a citizen or permanently resident in the Federation.
"The DNA matching meets the requirement of at least one parent being a citizen, the constitutional requirement is absolutely met and all other laws are subordinate to this clause and in any case needs to be consistent with this clause," Ganesan said.
He said despite written correspondences to the NRD director, Home Affairs Ministry chief secretary and the ttorney-general, there had been no effect.
"They (NRD) insist that the mother must be available and on hand for the application and that there must be a marriage registration.
"Parenthood is ultimately biological and all these requirements are just man-made rules to establish that parenthood," Ganesan said.

Ganesan also questioned the authorities why they were not being governed by the Federal Constitution, in matters related to citizenship.
"Can the citizens of the country conclude that your actions are effectively not governed by the laws of the country?
"That you can operate out of the ambit of law and that effectively there is no absolute rule of law in our country?"- Mkini

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