Orang Asli can challenge striking out of ‘unlawful conversion to Islam’ suit

 

137 Orang Asli want the Court of Appeal to overturn an order made by the Kuantan High Court last year striking out their lawsuit against the federal government and Pahang state authorities over their ‘unlawful’ conversion to Islam 30 years ago.

PUTRAJAYA: 

The Court of Appeal has allowed a group of 137 Orang Asli from the Bateq Mayah ethnic group in Pahang to revive their challenge to a mass conversion to Islam which took place in the community some 30 years ago.

A three-member bench recorded a consent order granting the group an extension of time to file their affidavit opposing an application by the federal government and the Pahang state authorities to strike out their lawsuit.

Justice M Nantha Balan, who chaired the panel of judges, said the affidavit, which had been filed out of time, has now been admitted into evidence.

He said the federal and state authorities are at liberty to file their affidavit-in-reply by Nov 11, with case management scheduled for the following day. 

The High Court order striking out the suit is set aside,

 said Nantha Balan, who sat with Justices Choo Kah Sing and Ahmad Kamal Shahid.

The judge noted that the Orang Asli group, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, had made some very serious allegations in their statement of claim.

The allegations may be false and could still be struck out,

 he said.

He said the High Court should not have dismissed the plaintiffs’ application for extension of time in the interest of justice.

Federal counsel Sallehudin Ali appeared for federal and state authorities, while lawyer A Surendra Ananth represented the plaintiffs.

The suit was struck out by the Kuantan High Court on Oct 3 last year, on the application of the federal government, the Orang Asli development department (Jakoa), several of its directors and officers, and the Pahang Islamic religious and Malay customs council, all named as defendants, to annul the suit.

The Pahang state government, also a defendant in the suit, did not participate in the striking out application.

The High Court ruled that the plaintiffs’ affidavit had been filed out of time, based on Section 2 of the Public Authorities Protection Act 1948 and Section 6 of the Limitations Act 1953.

The High Court also said it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case, and that the dispute should have been brought before the Pahang shariah court.

The plaintiffs claimed that in early 1993, two of their village leaders were asked by a Jakoa representative to convert to Islam and to secure the conversion of others in the village.

They alleged that when the villagers refused to do so, a Jakoa officer visited the village and threatened to evict them and destroy their homes and crops.

As a result, the plaintiffs said 57 of them were converted at their homes in Kampung Benchah Kelubi, Merapoh, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, in April 1993.

The remaining plaintiffs are the children of the 57 who were born later and were listed as Muslims on their identity cards.

The plaintiffs claim they were not informed of the legal implications of embracing Islam, including that they would be subject to Pahang’s Islamic legal framework and that children born to them would automatically be Muslims too.

Despite their conversions, the plaintiffs said they neither professed nor practised the Islamic faith, but retained the cultural and religious beliefs of the Bateq Mayah.

The plaintiffs said they only learnt that the word 

Islam

 was stated on their identity cards several years later as the villagers learnt Bahasa Malaysia. - FMT