Thursday 10 August 2017

Unilateral conversion - 8 years and counting

Indira Gandhi's case - Unilateral conversion of minors : eight years and counting

The saga of Indira Gandhi started with the abduction of a 11 months old Prasana and the unilateral conversion of Prasana, her 12 years old sister and her 11 years old brother on 3 April 2009 by their father (converted to Muslim on 11 March 2009) using their birth certificates. This case was one of a few cases that sparked a constitutional crisis pertaining to unilateral conversion across Malaysia.

DAP MP, Kulasegaran raised this issue of unilateral conversion in Parliament many times as more often than not the non-converting spouse has no legal recourse. A high level Cabinet committee was formed almost immediately. On April 2009,  the then de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Nazri stated in Parliament that children of an estranged couple should remain in the religion of the parents at the point of marriage and a Cabinet directive was issued to the effect. As a lawyer who has been fighting for Indira Gandhi, Kulasegaran had once again in March 2010 called on the Malaysian lawmakers in Parliament to address the issue of problems resulting from unilateral conversions to Islam. However, the Malaysian police refused to execute the civil court orders to restore custody of the child(ren) back to non-converting parent.

Eight years have passed since the Cabinet directive was announced by Nazri and we were elated to find out that the Parliament was going to table the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) (Amendment) Bill ("LRAA Bill") to ban unilateral conversion in 6th April 2017. Unfortunately, the debate of the said Bill was deferred in order to debate RUU 355, Hadi's Private Member's Bill. Even the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill was deferred to give precedence to RUU 355. All the more reason to have more female Members of Parliament. #feminism

We contained our elation and waited in trepidation for the LRAA Bill to be tabled on August 9 and our elation was cut short when we found out that the unilateral conversion clause was removed from the LRAA Bill. Granted that the LRAA Bill is a major step forward in that the father cannot hide behind the Syariah courts anymore and that the Bill has a retrospective effect which is unprecedented. However, we have strong reasons to believe that the ultras in the Cabinet objected to the inclusion of the unilateral conversion clause and a deal was made for the ultras to agree to the adoption of the Bill. It was also reported to be a unanimous Cabinet decision. The very same Cabinet who issued the directive against unilateral conversion i.e children of  estranged couples would be raised up in the religion prior to conversion.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department AzalinaOthman Said rightly said that those who convert to Islam must face the civil courts if they want to dissolve their marriage. Azalina said that they should be "jantan" enough to face it. 

Nazri came up with a flimsy excuse that the word "parent" in Article 12(4) of  the Federal Constitution needs to be amended first before we can include the unilateral conversion clause even though Article 160 of the Federal Constitution states that the "words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular". 

Can I suggest to Azalina to advise all her cabinet colleagues, especially Nazri and the Cabinet task force members like Liow Tiong Lai, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom to be "jantan" enough to defend helpless mothers like Indira Gandhi who are victimised by cowardly husbands like K Pathmanathan aka Muhammad Riduan Abdullah who hide behind the Syariah Court to gain custody of their children by unilaterally converting the religion of  their children. 

Nicole Tan Lee Koon
LLB (Hons) London, LLM (Malaya), CLP
DAP Wanita National Executive Committee (NEC) member 
DAP Negeri Sembilan State Committee
Political Secretary to Member of Parliament of Rasah 

Whatsapp : 019-6532977
Facebook : Nicole Tan Lee Koon(陳麗群), the social politico 
Twitter : loyarbaik




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