Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat) chairperson Arun Dorasamy blasted the government for its inaction on the unilateral religious conversions since the 2018 Federal Court landmark decision on the matter.
Reacting to the federal government’s handling of Loh Siew Hong’s case, Arun (above) questioned why the government failed to set up an agency to enforce the Federal Court order.
“After the 2018 Federal Court order on Indira Gandhi’s case, I would have had an agency to go after all these states and ask the respective state agencies to repeal and amend these enactments that contravene the Constitution, but they did not do so. So, the federal government wants to tutup separuh mata lah (close one eye).
“They had more than four years now to fix all these things but we still have over nine states that still allow unilateral conversion,” Arun said.
He claimed that for every one case brought to court, there are likely 500 cases that are not.
Speaking as the Hindu Service Centre chairperson, he added that within the Hindu community alone, there are roughly 2,000 unilateral conversion cases.
“The role of the federal government is to repeal the law. Why are they waiting? What are they waiting for? Christmas?” he quipped when contacted by Malaysiakini yesterday.
'Indira Gandhi 2.0'
The Ingat chairperson described Loh’s case as almost being “Indira Gandhi 2.0”.
“On January 29, 2018, the Federal Court made it clear that the conversion of minors can only be allowed with the expressed consent of both parents - mother and father.
“However, there are still states, namely about nine states around Malaysia, that still allow unilateral conversions by virtue of their enactments - syariah enactments - that allow unilateral conversion.
“In this case, the state of Perlis allows unilateral conversion, even though unilateral conversion is unconstitutional in all these nine states,” Arun said.
As a mother, Indira had faced a similar situation as Loh. Indira’s daughter, Prasana, was an infant when her father Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, previously named K Pathmanathan, took her away in 2009 after converting to Islam.
Riduan and Indira were later engaged in a tightly watched interfaith custody battle after he unilaterally converted Prasana and their two other children to Islam.
In 2018, the Federal Court unanimously ruled that unilateral conversions of children are unlawful as such decisions needed permission from both parents.
Arun suggested that Loh’s first priority now should be to quash the unilateral conversion of her children.
“Whether the children are going to remain in Islam, we leave it to the family to decide.
“We are nobody to decide - however, their unilateral conversion is null and void, as per the Federal Court decision, so she has to quash that now.
“Loh has to file a case against the Jabatan Agama Islam Perlis (Perlis Islamic Department) to quash that conversion first,” he said.
Loh was briefly reunited with her children at the Kangar district police headquarters in Perlis on Monday (Feb 14), after her then-husband Nagahswaran Muniandy took them away and unilaterally converted them to Islam three years ago.
The three children are now in the care of the Perlis Welfare Department, pending the outcome of a habeas corpus application set for Feb 21 at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.
Loh and her husband Nagahswaran separated in March 2019 and subsequently, her children were taken from her.
It was reported that Nagahswaran abducted the three children in Loh’s absence to be converted to Islam and placed them in an Islamic centre in Perlis. He is now in prison for a drug-related offence. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.