Dentist dreams of serving country but struggles for daughter’s citizenship

Each day, Dr Jennifer Yap faces a mountain of challenges at the government hospital where she works as a dentist.

There, she treats hundreds of patients, each with their own problems and ailments.

But the stress of work is nothing compared to what she and her husband are going through in their struggle to get citizenship for their young daughter waiting at home.

Yap met her husband, a Taiwanese, in 2009 while she was studying at the Taipei Medical University. They tied the knot in 2011.

In November 2017, Yap completed the National Orthodontic Board Specialist exam in Taiwan. She gave birth to her daughter eight days later.

Due to the tight window between her exam date and due date, she was unable to return to Malaysia to give birth.

Her troubles began shortly afterwards, when the Malaysian embassy in Taiwan told her that it was impossible to register her child as a citizen of Malaysia.

Yap was taken aback by the news but resolved to keep trying.

Today, some five years later, the struggle continues.

“Every time I get a response from the government, the answer is the same: no decision,” Yap told MalaysiaNow.

“I find this truly disappointing after everything I have done for the country. It cannot accept my child just because I married a foreigner.”

Under the Federal Constitution, children born overseas to Malaysian men are automatically granted Malaysian citizenship. Children born to Malaysian women married to foreigners, however, must apply for citizenship.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court previously ruled that children born overseas to Malaysian women should be granted automatic citizenship as well. However, the government through the home ministry and National Registration Department director-general filed an appeal against the decision.

A decision will be made by the Court of Appeal on June 22.

Eczema

Tan is also concerned about her child who has suffered since birth from a serious form of eczema.

Because of this, she decided to return to Malaysia in 2018, to seek treatment for her daughter with the help of her sister who is also a medical doctor.

Returning home at that point meant that her degree was not yet recognised by the country, and Tan was forced to start all over again from the bottom rung.

Nevertheless, she carries out her duties each day with no sense of regret for her decision.

After the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country, Tan became one of thousands of frontliners who faced the dangers of the virus on a daily basis.

But even before the possibility of a vaccine entered the picture, Tan was undaunted by the burden of her work.

“What exhausted me and broke my heart was the knowledge that my daughter was not a citizen like me,” she said.

In order for her daughter to remain in the country legally, Tan makes regular trips to and from the immigration department to renew the child’s social visa.

She does all of this alone as her husband is still working as a medical officer in Taiwan.

Sometimes, the process also interferes with her work at the hospital, taking up valuable hours of her time.

While Tan was ready and willing to give everything she had to the country during its time of need, she cannot help but feel a sense of injustice when she considers the fact that her daughter is treated as a foreigner simply because she couldn’t be born in the country.

As a mother, this is her only desire.

“Without citizenship, my daughter will have next to no chance to enrol in a government school, and she will be charged a different set of fees at public hospitals,” she said.

“If, for whatever reason, her social visitor’s pass is not renewed by the immigration, I might have to leave the country together with her and end my contract of service as a dentist under the health ministry.”

This is the last thing she wants, as she had always dreamt of becoming a certified doctor who could give back to her country.

“I turned down the offer of a position which paid far more in Taiwan, and I am here, far from my husband in Taiwan, all because I want to serve my country,” she said.

“I just want justice and protection for my child.”