Human Rights And Statelessness I N P E N I N S U L AR M AL AYS I A persons. Other regional developments include SUHAKAM renewing its memorandum of understanding (MoU) in March 2022 with the National Commission on Human Rights of Indonesia and the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines to address the issue of statelessness in Sabah (Qistina Nadia Dzulqarnain, 2022). 3.2 Historical background of Malaysia’s nationality law Malaysia adopts both a jus soli principle of citizenship (by birth right) and jus sanguinis (by nationality of parents). To understand Malaysia’s citizenship developments, we will examine how the Malaysian citizenship history of multilevel citizenship and jus soli citizenship was shaped by British colonialism, federalism, and the politics of communalism (Low, 2017). Multilevel citizenship Prior to 1946 in pre-war Malaya, there was no concept of ‘Malayan citizenship’ at the Federal level. Instead, there was multilevel citizenship that depended on the legal entity and who governed the states or colonies in Malaya (Low, 2017). State citizenship existed in the nine Malay states whereas British nationality existed in the two British colonies of Penang and Malacca (Carnell, 1952). During this time, the status of immigrant Chinese born in Malaya was undetermined due to the lack of citizenship legislation in the Malay states, as compared to the immigrant Indians who were considered British subjects (Lau, 1989). The British assisted the Malay States to provide a naturalisation pathway and a British passport for foreigners living in Malay States so that they could enjoy the rights and privileges of a natural-born subject within the Malay States (Low, 2013). Post-1946, the British then merged the Federated Malay States, the Unfederated Malay States, together with Penang and Malacca to form the Malayan Union. This union was the first attempt of territorial unification and the creation of a national citizenship at the Federal level to unite the different administration units and the immigrant communities. However, it was replaced by the formation of the Federation of Malaya whereby it still continued with multilevel nationality laws with state-level nationality 50