BUTTERWORTH: After days of frustrated waiting, Loh Siew Hong finally got to see her children for only the second time in three years, and she was overjoyed.
The single mother, who travelled to see the children at a welfare home in Jitra, Kedah, stopped in Sungai Petani to get their favourite food – chicken rice – and some local desserts.
“It is a feeling I just cannot describe,” she said of her meeting with her children after being denied for days, apparently over Covid-19 fears.
“It feels good just to be able to hold them. All my prayers are answered,” said Loh, a chef in Genting Highlands, yesterday.
The 35-year-old Loh, who won custody of the children in the High Court in March last year, saw them for the first time in three years outside the Kangar district police headquarters on Monday.
The meeting with the children, a pair of 14-year-old twin girls and 10-year-old son, was brief then.
It was reported that her ex-husband, Nagashwaran Muniandy, had converted to Islam and had also unilaterally converted the children. He was arrested for a drug-related offence and is now in jail in Kelantan.
Loh divorced her husband on March 19, 2019.
Earlier, Loh, with the help of Bagan Dalam assemblyman M. Satees and Tamilar Kural Malaysia president David Marshel, lodged a police report, claiming her children were “illegally” taken away without her knowledge while she was recovering from a fractured leg.
She filed a habeas corpus application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 13, asking it to compel the return of her three children.
The children are now under the care of the Perlis Welfare Department until the application is heard on Feb 21.
Meanwhile, Wanita MCA chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie said no mother in her right mind would ever want to be separated from her school-going children.
“The emotional burden, which Loh has been enduring over the last three years, from the separation to searching for her children who have been allegedly converted without her knowledge is unfathomable,” she said in a statement yesterday.
Heng said that based on news reports, the children appeared to have been shuffled around to different locations.
“Such change of residence is unhealthy for the children’s mental development or stability.
“Both the children and mother have suffered emotional torment. There is no need to separate them further,” she said.
The Legal Advisory and Women’s Aid Centre (LAWA) of Wanita MCA is ready to extend any counselling and legal advice to Loh.
The secretariat can be reached at 03-2716 5943.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
