The confusion that is politically-driven Malaysia

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan, The Ant Daily

OUTSPOKEN: S Deepa, a mother at the centre of a custodial dispute, on April 7, 2014 was awarded the custody of her two children by the High Court but two days later her Muslim convert husband abducted their six-year-old son from her house. She suffered some bruises when trying to stop the abduction.

The police, however, would not act on this case as according to the IGP and the Jelebu OCPD, the husband too had obtained a custody order but his was from the Syariah High Court.

The police seemed to have sided with the order of the Syariah High Court and would not act on the matter of the seizure of the son by the husband.

Surprisingly, this was what the Jelebu OCPD said, “As far as we are concerned, we cannot investigate Izwan Abdullah, the husband, (previously known as N Viran,) for abducting his son. We have to respect and obey the orders issued by both courts.” 

So the confusion was created. He only acted on the Syariah Court order but he would not act on the decision of the High Court. Yet he maintained that the police was bound by the decisions of both courts.

But after complaints and criticism by the public and also the rebuke made by the former minister in charge of legal affairs and now Minister of Tourism Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that this was a “clear cut” case of kidnapping, the police then made a u-turn concerning the case.

This has not been the only case where confusion was created. There had been several. In 2002, there was a case of a similar nature. But this was slightly different as the civil court refused to hear the case, saying as the children were Muslims, only the Syariah Court could decide on the children’s custodial rights.

The confusion arises as the government is mute on the matter. It seems that conversion of minors needs only the consent of one parent if we go by the act of the Syariah Court. But there was a cabinet decision on the matter which said that the religion of the children should be the religion of the parents when they married. In the current case both were not Muslims. The cabinet decision is there but not enforced.

The prime minister seems to be oblivious to all these shenanigans. All he had been doing was to speak about all sorts good things that should be done but he has done nothing.

More confusion arose when a Muslim NGO came out with the ridiculous statement that churches should not use the national language to highlight their events.

It was reported that Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) took offence that a church in Seremban used Bahasa Malaysia to promote its Easter musical. Its Seremban chief Zamani Ibrahim questioned why the Malay language was used to promote the event. He said that the Christians in Malaysia comprising mainly the Chinese and Indians had always used English as their main language.

The church replied that the event would be conducted in English but the bunting was done in accordance with the Seremban City Council regulation requiring the wordings to be in Bahasa Malaysia.

The church’s spokeswoman Tan Szet Anne, an assistant pastor, said that although other languages could be used the council insisted that the national language version must be prominently displayed on the banner.

Isma (zero IQ in content) took everything with very slanted eyes and believed that the Christians were out to convert the Muslims.

The Allah issue of course is the classic case of creating the national confusion. The Arabs whether they are Muslims or Christians have been using this word to denote God but to the Malay-Muslim government of Malaysia, this word was the prerogative of the Muslims only.

The minister involved in banning this word from use by non-Muslims was proud of his act not knowing that although he is of Arab descent, he knew nothing of what the Arab situation on the matter was. He was definitely confused.

The court on appeal was too scared to offend the Malay-Muslims and thus confirmed that the word was only meant for use by the Malay-Muslims.

The government under Datuk Seri Najib Razak is also confused as to what to do. As the Malay proverb goes, “Telan mati emak, luah mati bapak”. It is in complete dilemma. To act on the demands of the non-Muslims the government opined that this would anger the Malay-Muslims and not to act would simply create anger among the non-Muslims.

Political considerations had blinded the Umno Baru-BN government as to the true nature of the case. Thus it created confusion to the whole nation.

It is time that we brought sanity back to the country. Let the country rid itself of all these conflicting issues and create a clearer and harmonious atmosphere for all.

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan is a former press secretary to second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and the writer of the book, "The Unmaking of Malaysia".