Malaysian Citizenship, Stateless Child and JPN Advisory

A recent consultation from northern Malaysia involved a case concerning an investigation by the National Registration Department (JPN), specifically its investigation division, commonly referred to as BSK. The case highlights a serious issue that parents should understand: when a child’s birth registration is incorrectly recorded from the beginning, the consequences may not appear immediately. The problem may only surface many years later when the child applies for an identity document, potentially affecting the child’s birth certificate, citizenship, religious status and future life. The case involved a Chinese Malaysian couple who were approaching their 40s and had not yet had children. They had always wanted to have a child. Through a friend, they were introduced to a young Malay woman who had given birth to a child outside marriage. The woman subsequently handed the child over to the couple to raise.

A Malaysian couple decided to formally adopt a girl born in China whom they had been caring for over a long period. However, when they hopefully applied to the Sessions Court for an adoption order, their application was rejected due to a procedural issue that appeared simple yet was highly controversial. The case was eventually appealed to the Penang High Court, where the ruling clarified a crucial legal question regarding the adoption of foreign-born children in Malaysia: Does the absence of a Malaysian birth certificate mean a child cannot be legally adopted?

A child had been raised by the same family since he was just one month old. He lived with them for a full twenty years, immersed in Chinese culture, customs, and family upbringing. To his adoptive mother, the boy was already family. However, when she finally decided to formally adopt him through legal channels, she discovered that she was facing not merely a matter of simple formalities, but a nearly insurmountable legal hurdle. The woman in the case, Pen, is a 57-year-old widow and business owner who already has seven children of her own. About twenty years ago, an Indonesian domestic helper in her household gave birth to a baby boy named Kal. According to Pen, the helper left shortly after the birth and has not been heard from since.

A child was born at Ipoh General Hospital to a Malaysian father. He grew up receiving vaccinations and an education in Malaysia; he even obtained a Malaysian passport when he was just over a year old and used it to travel to Sarawak. However, when he was eight years old and in Primary 2, a routine procedure to replace a document led to a sudden, drastic change in his status: the citizenship entry on his original birth certificate was altered to read “Non-citizen” (*Bukan Warganegara*).

Imagine a couple who have devoted themselves to raising a child for 12 years, treating him as their own flesh and blood. It is only when the child turns 12 and prepares to apply for his MyKad at the National Registration Department (NRD) that the parents are suddenly informed of a problem regarding his citizenship status—raising the possibility that he might even be considered stateless. For a child who has grown up in Malaysia, this implies that his future—spanning education, healthcare, employment, marriage, and other aspects of daily life—could be fraught with obstacles related to his legal status. So, if a child has obtained a legal adoption order through the courts and the adoptive parents are both Malaysian citizens, does the child automatically become a Malaysian citizen? This case illustrates precisely why the answer is not so straightforward.

One of the most critical issues in this case is the girl’s exact age at the time she was discovered. Police reports estimated her age at approximately one and a half years, whereas subsequent medical assessments placed it at around one year. While this discrepancy might seem insignificant to the average person, it could prove decisive regarding citizenship under the Constitution. Article 19B of the Second Schedule to the Federal Constitution establishes a crucial presumption mechanism for abandoned newborns. In essence, if a newborn is found abandoned, the law allows for a presumption—under specific circumstances—that the mother was a local resident; this helps resolve the issue of determining the biological parents’ identities. For many abandoned infants, this provision can serve as a vital legal safeguard for securing citizenship.

If a child grows up in Malaysia, holds a birth certificate bearing the word “Warganegara” (Citizen), and is raised by the same family for a full twelve years, the parents would naturally assume the child’s status is settled. However, this case reveals a startling reality: when the child applied for a MyKad in 2013, the National Registration Department (JPN) questioned the validity of her birth registration simply because her skin tone and facial features differed markedly from those of the mother listed on the document; what seemed like a routine identity card application ultimately exposed an issue regarding her true parentage that had remained hidden for over a decade.

This case concerns a male infant, LWO, born in 2009 at a medical center in Klang, Selangor. At the time of the child’s birth, a Malaysian couple made a crucial yet erroneous decision when registering the birth: they falsely claimed to the registration authorities that they were the child’s biological parents. Based on this false registration, the child subsequently obtained a birth certificate designating him as a “Warganegara” (citizen) and lived in Malaysia as a citizen for 12 years.

If a person is born in Malaysia, holds a Malaysian birth certificate from childhood, obtains a MyKad at age 12, and subsequently completes their education—even graduating from university—most people would naturally assume that their Malaysian citizenship is firmly established. However, the case of Elaine Leong Ee Ling (hereinafter referred to as “Ms. E”) demonstrates that possessing such identity documents since childhood does not necessarily guarantee that one’s birth registration and citizenship status will remain legally unquestioned.