It certainly paints a gloomy hue for Malaysia.
Putrajaya’s decision to withdraw a bill aimed at resolving the contentious issue of unilateral conversion of children when one parent converts to Islam is upsetting and rips off the rights of the non-Muslim parent.
The recent case in point is that of Indira Gandhi’s. She has been fighting the unilateral conversion of her three children by her Muslim convert ex-husband for the last eight years.
But the irresponsible decision to do away with Clause 88A, which states that if a parent converted to Islam the religion of his children would remain the same unless both parents agreed to their conversion, has left Indira in a bind.
Many more will suffer the same fate, especially when the act of converting to Islam is used by one spouse to gain custody of his children.
It seems like the government is desperate to appease the Islamists PAS as it can’t afford to strain ties just before the next general election.
Nor can UMNO take chances with the Malay Muslim voters, who form a huge chunk of its vote bank.
If this is the case, then we certainly need to know the truth.
The Barisan Nasional component parties must therefore clarify the sudden withdrawal of the Bill, given that representatives of UMNO, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) sat on an informal panel to resolve inter-faith child custody conflicts.
It’s also suspect given that the second reading of the Bill was suspended twice.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Azalina Othman, has said the withdrawal is to avoid any confusion with the Federal Constitution.
This is mere nonsense as the government was supportive of PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang’s, proposed private bill that seeks to increase the power of the Syariah Courts to impose any kind of Syariah punishments, which is against the Federal Constitution that protects the rights of every Malaysian and against the duality of sentencing.
So we are back to square one: why did the government withdraw the Bill suddenly?
However embarrassing the answer may be, the government owes us the truth.