My Child is Malaysian

How much more does a Malaysian mother have to prove to her own nation that her own flesh and blood, born outside of her home country, carries the same value as a Malaysian father’s?

- Koyyi Chin

“Lain kali go marry a local Malaysian men [sic] abroad if you want your kids to have Malaysian citizenships.”

“The law is to protect Malaysian women as our precious asset, so please think and choose wisely before getting marry [sic].”

“Government always follow the dad. This is something u need to adapt to.”

From xenophobic comments that deem children born abroad as “outsiders” and “threats to national security”, to ones that outright penalise Malaysian women for marrying abroad and tell them to have their children follow the father’s citizenship as they presumably “follow the father’s surname”, or because the fathers were “heads of their households”, these were what Malaysian mothers contended with over Twitter when they shared their personal struggles on conferring citizenship to their children.

The crux of the issue faced by Malaysian women abroad boils down to the patrilineal interpretation of our citizenship laws, and society’s lack of awareness towards the challenges presented to these women because of said interpretation.

On September 9, 2021, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the government must grant citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses. However, that ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in August 2022.