MCA urges Selangor govt to withdraw proposed amendments to allow unilateral conversion of minors

PETALING JAYA: MCA has urged the Selangor state government to withdraw a proposed amendment to a state Bill that will allow unilateral conversion of minors.

It was reported that Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari had planned to push through a state Bill to allow unilateral conversion of minors.

Currently, the consent of both parents are needed in matters concerning the conversion of a minor in Selangor but once the amendments are made, consent will be required from only one parent.

MCA spokesman Chan Quin Er (pic) called on Amirudin and the Selangor government to uphold the Federal Constitution as the supreme law of the land and to respect and abide by the ruling of the Federal Court in January 2018 in the M. Indira Gandhi case.

Chan said the landmark ruling by the Federal Court has clarified and confirmed that the Constitution should not be interpreted literally, adding that the consent of both parents is needed before changing the faiths of minors.

"MCA reiterates that Article 160, 11th Schedule of the Federal Constitution clearly spells that words in the singular includes the plural and words in the plural includes the singular, " she said in a statement Thursday (Aug 8).

She added that the Federal Constitution also addressed the issue of conflict arising over state versus federal powers.

Chan cited Article 75, where it reads that "if any state law is inconsistent with a federal law, the federal law shall prevail."

"It is baffling and alarming that the Pakatan Harapan Selangor state government not only desires to amend a state enactment to contravene the Federal Constitution, but snubs the constitutional rights of the non-converting parent, besides ignoring the wider polarising effects on the immediate family and society at large as a consequence of a sole parent who embraces another faith.

"For more than a decade, controversies have raged over unilateral conversions of minor children involving not only Indira Gandhi but other cases (S. Shyamala and Subashini Rajasingham v Saravanan Thangathoray) and judgement by courts lower than the apex courts have divided Malaysia, " she said.

Chan said if the state and federal governments plan to instil the values and goodwill of multiculturalism, then enacting laws to legally permit unilateral conversion of a minor child was "mala fide (in bad faith) and breaches such values".