PKR lawmaker says PM Najib ‘holding women to ransom’ over child conversion

Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung accused Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of “holding women to ransom” by demanding they give BN a two-thirds majority in the coming election to end unilateral child conversion.

"It is utterly indefensible and inhumane of the prime minister to exploit the miseries and suffering of mothers arising from unilateral conversion of minors just to win votes," Gooi said.

Najib had told women at the Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) dialogue session earlier this week that the government could only introduce Section 88A with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.  

The proposed Section 88A, if introduced in the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act (LRA), would have put a stop to unilateral conversion, but was dropped from the amendments to the LRA passed in the last Parliament sitting.

Calling the prime minister’s remarks “shameful and disguting,” Gooi said Section 88A would have gone a long way to resolving private marriage disputes.

"We have all witnessed the living hell families go through when a non-Muslim spouse converts himself and his children to Islam without his non-Muslim wife’s prior knowledge and consent.

"Families are literally ripped and torn apart, with mothers separated from their children for years on end in long protracted legal battles and clashes on issues of jurisdiction between civil and syariah courts, the police refusing to enforce civil court orders, often leaving the non-Muslim spouses totally helpless," he added.

If Najib was genuine in his desire to end unilateral conversion, Gooi said, he would not have to wait until after the election, since such a move would likely be receive bipartisan support.  

"Why wait until after the next general election when the unilateral conversion issue can be resolved now by a constitutional amendment supported by the opposition?"

"As Prime Minister and BN chief, Najib could have gone further by directing BN controlled states to amend state enactments to disallow any one or single parent to convert their child to Islam without the consent of both parents," said the PKR lawmaker. - Mkini