Wing sets up legal panel on religious conversion issues

KUALA LUMPUR: Wanita MCA has set up a legal committee to address issues relating to religious conversion in the country, said its chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie (pic).

The team, led by Wanita MCA vice-chairman Wong You Fong and comprising members from non-governmental organisations, aims to find solutions to the problems in light of the M. Indira Gandhi case.

The committee, said Heng, would discuss and study the issues from a legal point of view and provide input to the Cabinet committee set up for the same purpose. The wing, she said, was not against any religion.

“We are just acting on the principles of justice, the upholding of the Federal Constitution and legal dignity,” she said after chairing the wing’s central committee meeting.

Heng also expressed the wing’s full support for Indira, whose three children were converted to Islam by her Muslim convert ex-husband without her consent.

The Court of Appeal recently ruled that Muslim conversion issues were exclusively within the Syariah Court’s jurisdiction.

However, the non-Muslim parent could not initiate a lawsuit in the Syariah Courts on behalf of their children under existing laws.

A committee of ministers, led by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, had recently been asked by the Cabinet to look into the matter.

Wanita MCA had earlier proposed that religion of minors must be determined equally by both parents. If there is any dispute, the children’s religion shall remain status quo until the age of 18 when they can choose.