Comment: Malaysia's fake birth certificate scandal reveals a deeper crisis

The adoption labyrinth and the despair of the parents

For Malaysian families who want to adopt abandoned children, the process is full of obstacles.

The adoption laws differ for Muslim and non-Muslim children, although the classification of the religion of a foundation is often arbitrary. Even after navigating the adoption process, parents face a tough fight for birth certificates and citizenship for their children.

Some frustrated by bureaucratic inertia and discriminatory practices, some of them turn to intermediate traders and illegal channels to receive documents. In many cases, adoptive parents use the child's registration as a biological descendant and delete the true origins of the child.

This is not just a failure of law enforcement – it is a failure of the state to provide a human, functional system for adoption and citizenship.

The fatal consequences of the criminalization of abandoning

Malaysia's punishment for the child's abandonment tightens the crisis. The fear of the public prosecutor drives mothers – often alone and vulnerable – to give up newborns under uncertain conditions. In Malaysia it is called “Baby Dumping”. 60 percent of the abandoned infants are found deadly.

Instead of supporting these women or providing safe alternatives, the law pushes them into despair and immortalized a tragedy cycle.

Malaysia does not have to look for solutions. Morocco, an Islamic nation that was once exposed to a similar Orphan crisis, carried out comprehensive reforms in their family law (Mudawana) for the first time in 2004 and further improved the code to promote women's rights in 2024. The key among the first reforms was the decriminalization of children, and the construction of clarity.