Conversion issue still ongoing after 7 years – Nicole Tan Lee Koon

I would like juxtapose two issues for your kind consideration. First, the issue of rape by minors: the gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student on a public bus, on December 16, 2012 that sparked large protests across New Delhi.

Second, the issue of unilateral conversion of minors: the case of M. Indira Gandhi pertaining to the abduction of an 11-month-old Prasana and her unilateral conversion, her 12-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother on April 3, 2009 by their father (converted to Muslim on March 11, 2009) using their birth certificates and the case of S. Deepa pertaining to the unilateral conversion of a four-year-old boy and his seven-year-old sister in April 2013 and the abduction of the boy by his then recently converted father with a history of domestic violence on April 9, 2014, which sparked constitutional questions pertaining to unilateral conversion across Malaysia.

For the first issue, the rape victim was with a male friend who was severely beaten with an iron rod during the incident.

This same rod was used to penetrate her so severely that the victim’s intestines had to be surgically removed.

She died 13 days after the attack. The following day, on December 17, 2012, there was an uproar in the Indian Parliament over the incident. MPs in both houses had set aside their regular business to discuss the gruesome rape case and demanded strict punishment for those who carried out the attack.

Leader of the opposition, Sushma Swaraj, demanded that “the rapists should be hanged”. Thousands of mostly young people participated in a massive protest on December 22, 2012.

The Indian police arrested six men suspected of rape. One suspect was released on December 20, 2015. because he was just shy of his 18th birthday on the night of the rape. He served only three years in custody, a sentence that many felt amounted to a severe miscarriage of justice. His release triggered calls to carry out changes in juvenile law.

Two days later, India’s Parliament approved amendments to the long-standing juvenile law on December 23, 2015, paving the way for the prosecution of juvenile suspects, as young as 16 to 18 years old, to be tried as adults if they were accused of such “heinous crimes”.

For the second issue, the opposition DAP lawmaker M. Kulasegaran raised this issue of unilateral conversion in Parliament as more often than not the non-converting spouse has no legal recourse.

A high-level Cabinet committee was formed almost immediately. In April 2009, de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz stated in Parliament that the children of conversion would be raised up in the religion prior to conversion and a Cabinet directive was issued to the effect.

As a lawyer who has been fighting for Indira Gandhi, Kulasegaran once again in March 2010 called on the 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.

Seven years have passed since the Cabinet directive was announced by Nazri but it was nothing more than merely lip service.

On January 9, 2016, the MIC chairman paid more lip service as he announced that the Cabinet was still looking into the unilateral conversion matter.

The Malaysian government is dragging its feet and lacks the political will to implement their Cabinet directive by coming out with a permanent solution.

The latest Federal Court decision of Deepa failed to address the unilateral conversion issue even though it clearly held that marriages contracted under civil law are the sole jurisdiction of the civil courts.

The Deepa decision also failed to address the police inaction and seems to condone the abduction of children.

If the Indian Parliament can do it in two days, I don’t see why Indira Gandhi has to be separated from her daughter for eight years.

The unilateral conversion of minor children has caused abominable pain and sufferings to the non-converting spouse.

The need is now more urgent than ever for an effective and conclusive legal remedy to circumvent the prolonged and persistent recurrence of this social injustice. It is the duty of the Malaysian Parliament to elucidate and bring a closure on issues of conversions and custody of children by amending the relevant laws. – February 12, 2016.

* Nicole Tan Lee Koon is a DAP Wanita National Executive Committee member.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.