KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 -- The Malaysian government should not change the Federal Constitution to remove the existing rights of children of "permanent residents" to automatically be entitled to Malaysian citizenship, as it will hurt the natives of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia who continue to be stateless and only hold "permanent resident" status, the Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance (MCRA) has said.

Being stateless means a person is not a citizen of any country in the world.

Despite Malaysia being 60 years old now, the MCRA said there are still those in the country's indigenous communities - known as Orang Asli and Orang Asal - who still hold only a "red IC" or red identification card that denotes their official status to ...