Human Rights And Statelessness I N P E N I N S U L AR M AL AYS I A was a compromise to include non-Malays as citizens instead of providing unconditional jus soli which was still highly controversial amidst the rising Malay ethnonationalism (K. J. Ratnam, 1965). Delayed jus soli meant that the level of assimilation became the criterion (instead of birth right) for non-Malays to acquire Malaysian citizenship (Low, 2016), which meant only second generation of non-Malays were eligible for citizenship by operation by law as they would have assimilated. Unconditional jus soli was finally adopted post-Independence in 1957 so that non-Malays, born within the Federation on or after Merdeka Day, were able to acquire Malaysian citizenship by registration under Article 16 of the Constitution, as shown in Figure 4. This was contingent on two factors: first, independence from the British, which was conditional on inter-ethnic cooperation in working towards nation building, and second, the inclusion of special affirmative citizenship rights for the Bumiputera (i.e. Malays and indigenous persons) to ensure a balanced socio-economic redistribution between the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera (Low, 2017). Therefore, even though all persons were finally entitled to citizenship by birth right, the presence of affirmative citizenship rights for the Bumiputera creates an unequal starting point on citizenship rights (Verma, 2002). Figure 4: Sample Certificate of Registration to register citizens of the Federation of Malaya under Article 16 of the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya 52