Mum seeks Court of Appeal order to remove son's Islamic status on MyKad

A mother has turned to the Court of Appeal in her bid to remove the Islamic status from her 18-year-old son's MyKad.

The family's counsel Clarice Chan confirmed with Malaysiakini that they filed their notice of appeal this morning after the legal team received instructions to appeal two nights ago.

Chan said the mother is under stress, while the teenager is holding his own for now as he just started college.

Two days before the teenager's birthday on Oct 16, the Kuching High Court dismissed the mother's legal challenge against the National Registration Department’s (NRD) alleged delay in changing her son's religious status on his MyKad.

The youth previously made a declaration in his affidavit to support his Buddhist mother’s legal challenge that his Muslim father had no objections to him being Buddhist.

In dismissing the mother's legal bid, civil court judge Zaleha Rose Pandin ruled that only the syariah court has the power to hear the issue as the boy was born a Muslim.

The judge said that the changes sought for the MyKad were tantamount to renouncing the faith and not simply seeking a declaration.

Notwithstanding that the child did not profess or practise or was raised a Muslim, the judge said one cannot make unilateral declarations as there are processes on the matter.

The ruling pointed out that, unlike the 2021 Federal Court verdict that allowed Rosliza Ibrahim to be declared non-Muslim as there was no evidence of an Islamic marriage, the boy’s case showed evidence of an Islamic marriage and divorce, thus the mother is bound by Islamic procedures.

‘I am a Buddhist’

In his affidavit filed in August, the Sabah-born teenager living in Sarawak said he was born on Oct 18, 2005, and understood that his parents were divorced, explaining that he had at the time just completed his schooling at a Chinese vernacular school in Kota Kinabalu.

“I am a Buddhist. During my schooling years, I have not taken any Islamic religious classes. I have not practised Islam in my life,” he said, stating that his friends knew him by his Chinese name.

“I have never professed or practised any other religion in my life. My father has not objected to me being a Buddhist. I want to be identified as a non-Muslim,” the teen emphasised in the affidavit affirmed on Aug 9.

Earlier in August, his 52-year-old mother filed the originating summons against the Births, Deaths and Adoptions director; the Sarawak Regional Registrar of Births and Deaths; the Identity Card Division director; the NRD director-general; NRD; and the federal government, as the first to sixth defendants.

The mother was seeking a declaration that she had the right to determine the religion and upbringing of her son, who has a Muslim name on his MyKad.

The plaintiff sought a civil court order to compel the first, second and third defendants to record changes in her son’s MyKad in relation to religion.

According to her affidavit in support, she and her then-husband had married under Sabah’s Islamic Family Law Enactment 1992 on Aug 3, 1999, with their son being born later on Oct 18, 2005.

Reiterating that she was a practising Buddhist at the time, she said the couple divorced on Jan 27, 2010, pursuant to the Federal Territory’s Islamic Family Law Act 1984.

She said that she obtained sole care and custody of their son, who was raised as a Buddhist since birth, and that her former husband has since remarried and has a separate family.

NRD complications

The mother claimed that problems began on July 5 when she and her lawyers applied to the Sarawak NRD to change the details in her son’s identity card registers.

The applicant claimed that personnel at the state government department’s counter refused to accept the application and that the latter gave a separate set of forms for the former to fill up.

She then submitted the application again on July 18 with supporting documents from her former husband as well as their son, which was accepted by the department.

She alleged that following her lawyers’ letter to the state NRD, the department replied via a letter dated July 31 that neither granted nor rejected the application and that it had instead asked her to fill out even more forms.

The mother pointed out that the forms were repetitive as they were in essence identical - especially the second and third forms - save for the provisions of the relevant ordinance.

She contended that as a Malaysian, she is entitled to correct the details on her son’s identity card in the relevant register in any part of the country.

The mother contended that not only is her son known to his friends, family, teachers and community by his Chinese name, but she and her son are also part of a Buddhist society in Kuching. - Mkini