Tomorrow, the nation will witness a high-spirited woman cum mother - M Indira Gandhi - and her family leading a march to the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
They will express their utmost frustration against the police for their utter failure to locate Indira’s beloved daughter, who has been missing for almost 16 years.
The proposed Justice March is essentially a renewed call for the police to locate Indira's youngest daughter, Prasana Diksa. Being the organisers of the proposed march, the Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat) and Agamam Ani Malaysia, their founder, Arun Dorasamy, rightly argued that the mother's unyielding fight for her missing child knows no limits.
Like it or not, Indira’s story reflects a very sad episode of many things. One of them is the failure of the legal system to really ensure the mother’s right to her child should never be compromised, come what may! To Indira’s credit, she had duly explored all the legal avenues in asserting her rights.
She, being a kindergarten teacher, was granted custody of the child by the Ipoh High Court in 2010. And in 2018, she won her legal battle again when the Federal Court categorically ordered the police to reunite the child with her mother.
Armed with such a powerful order from the highest court of the land, one would have expected the order to be strictly adhered to.
To her dismay, however, the court order was left unenforced, apparently due to bureaucratic inaction. To recap, the agony faced by Indira started when her ex-husband, Riduan Abdullah, decided to embrace Islam and, in turn, took their child with him.
Hoping for a glimmer of light
It is not my intention here to discuss complicated legal issues revolving around family law disputes, hence indirectly delving into legal jumbo mumbo, so much so that the real issue could be conveniently forgotten.
Being a Muslim cum a former lawyer, I believe Indira’s husband has every right to embrace his new religion - Islam. Likewise, his wife’s right to stick to her religion (Hinduism) must also be respected.
Having said that, I contend that conversion to Islam per se is not a licence for him to separate the child from her non-Muslim mother.
After all, the relationship between a mother and any of her children transcends religion. Ergo, Indira’s right to her child remains intact and should have been zealously protected and duly guaranteed.
With a deep regret, I dare to say that whatever Indira’s ex-husband has done so far - irrespective of whatever intention he may have - with due respect, merely besmirches the image and good name of Islam.
Despite everything seeming bleak to Indira at this juncture, it is hoped that the proposed Justice March will see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. - Mkini
HANIPA MAIDIN is a former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Legal Affairs).
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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