Although the Malaysian Cabinet’s decision to ban the conversion of minors without the consent of both parents and to make it law to raise children according to the common faith of the couple at the time of marriage, even if one of them later converts, is a welcome move towards empowering minorities in this multi-religious, multi-cultural country, optimism over the news needs to be tempered with caution.
The decision was taken after the widely publicised case of Ms M Indira Gandhi was brought to the notice of the Malaysian Government. Ms Gandhi — an ethnic Indian Hindu — has been fighting a legal battle against her husband who recently embraced Islam and converted their three children to the religion— all minors — without her consent. The husband is said to have gone into hiding with the youngest of the three, baby Prasanna, aged one.
But in the wake of the Cabinet decision the Ipoh High Court granted Ms Gandhi custody of all her children. She is now battling to be reunited with her infant child and see to it that all her children remain Hindus as the country’s Sharia’h Department has already taken note of their conversion. Ms Gandhi’s case is one of many reflecting the underlying social tensions plaguing this Muslim-dominated country.
For long minority communities such as the ethnic Tamil Hindus and the Chinese Buddhists have claimed unequal treatment and opportunities vis-à-vis the majority Muslim Malay community. And more than anything else it is in the practice of religion that these discrepancies have been most visible. Malaysia has a two-tier judicial structure comprising Islamic sharia’h courts and secular civil courts. The former are supposed to govern matters relating to Islamic personal law whereas the latter are supposed to look after civil disputes of a non-Islamic nature. But in practice the sharia’h courts exercise much greater influence than the civil courts. In fact, it is the absence of any clear demarcation of jurisdiction between the two that often creates confusion and reaffirms the feeling of discrimination among the minorities.
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