By S. Sundareson
Letters to the Editor
New Straits Times
I REFER to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s article on the Chinese dilemma published in the New Straits Times on July 26 and 27.
Dr Mahathir said: “Buoyed by the success of the Alliance party in the 1955 elections, the Tunku looked more kindly at the proposal of Sir Cheng Lock that citizenship should be based on jus soli (citizenship by being born in the country). The Tunku did not quite agree but he nevertheless decided to give one million citizenships to unqualified Chinese and Indians.”
As a former registrar of citizens, I wish to comment on Dr Mahathir’s views.
The legislation that conferred citizenship on Malayans are the Federation of Malaya Agreement, 1948, State Nationality Enactment, 1952 of the various states and finally, the Federal Constitution that came into force on Feb 1, 1948, Sept 15, 1952 and Aug 31, 1957 respectively. Continue reading “MALAYSIAN CITIZENSHIP: One million met criteria”