Sarawak PAS and Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) has called for former Pujut assemblyperson Dr Ting Tiong Choon’s Malaysian citizenship to be revoked.

This comes after the court’s decision this morning to disqualify Ting (above) as an assemblyperson due to his dual citizenship in Malaysia and Australia.

Sarawak PAS commissioner Jofri Jaraiee and Putra vice-president Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz both said Ting should have his citizenship revoked under Article 24(1) of the Federal Constitution.

Article 24(1) states that the government “may by order deprive that person of his citizenship” if it is satisfied that the citizen has acquired the citizenship of another country.

“PAS believes that this is a lie to the people of Sarawak. DAP was clearly irresponsible by lying to the rakyat in Pujut especially when hiding the dual citizenship of their assemblyperson.

“PAS also urges the state government to review the allowances and allocation given to the DAP assemblyperson,” Jofri said.

He also called for the authorities to review any elected representatives to check who has dual citizenship so that action can be taken against them.

Meanwhile, Mohd Khairul (below) said they welcome the court's decision today to disqualify Ting as an assemblyperson due to his dual citizenship.

Even though the court did not touch upon the issue of Article 24(1) today, he said he is sure that the government has now been informed that there is a Malaysian citizen who has been proven to have dual citizenship.

“That is why Putra is pushing the home minister to start investigation proceedings under Article 27 (on the procedure of deprivation) of the Federal Constitution to revoke the citizenship of Ting,” he said.

He added that Putra would write a formal letter to the home minister on this matter.

It was reported earlier today that the Federal Court upheld that the Sarawak state assembly had not erred in its decision to disqualify him as an assemblyperson.

The Sarawak state assembly had on May 12, 2017, disqualified Ting based on the fact that he has had dual citizenship even though he later renounced his Australian citizenship just before the 2016 Sarawak election.

Ting had acquired Australian citizenship in 2010.

The House had argued that this violated Article 17(1)(g) of the state constitution which states that a person is disqualified if he had voluntarily obtained or exercised the right of citizenship in any other country.

There will be no by-election as it has been more than three years since the last state election.