Arguably, the passport as in that physical little red book belongs to the government in the sense that you cannot deface, reproduce, pledge or part with possession of it or do anything to it in that generic sense of taking liberty with that little book. The right to a passport, upon payment of a fee, like the right to a citizenship is an inalienable human right as contained in the International Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and Malaysia, I believe, is a signatory to that international convention. The right to a citizenship was conceived following Hitlers dirty tactic of stripping Jews of their German citizenship and rendering them citizen-less aliens in no mans land so that he can be a barbarian to them with no protection of German or any countrys law. There was no right to a citizenship before the International Declaration of Human Rights which came in only after deep reflection by Roosevelt, Churchill and other world leaders of the ways and means to avert a repeat of the atrocities of WW II. A right to passport must be interpreted on reasonable and rational and necessary grounds to be part and parcel of the right to a citizenship. A right to a passport must be included in the citizens bundle of inalienable rights. Having said that, on reasonable and cogent grounds, the Executive may, in the exercise of their prerogative or similar administrative powers, prohibit a citizen from leaving the country even if he has a passport. But they cannot stop you from coming back and stepping in Malaysian soil.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 08:23:53 +0000
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