The move to ban child marriage has been vocally pushed for by many quarters in Malaysia over the last few years. The destructive effect of child marriage has been globally recognised, pushing many countries to make great strides in amending legislation in relation to, among others, to raise the minimum age for marriage.
Efforts to do the same under the PH administration saw several states agreeing to amendments of the law to increase the minimum age of marriage, while some resisted. Early this year, a National Strategic Plan to address the causes of Underage Marriage was put into motion. After the sudden change of government, a PAS MP was appointed as Deputy Minister of the Women and Family Development Ministry.
PAS has in the past been reported to have resisted measures to ban child marriage. For example, the Star online daily reported in July 2018, that the PAS vice President took the position that ‘imposing a blanket ban on child marriages contravened religious teachings’.
Malaysiakini.com also reported in November, 2018, that ‘a roundtable organised by the PAS led Kelantan government has concluded that underage marriage is consistent with the Syariah law and even a ‘necessity’ in the state.’
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/453901
More recently, in March this year, the Deputy Minister of the Women and Family Development Ministry, Siti Zailah, when asked about the concern raised by Hannah Yeoh, in a tweet, about the future of the national road map to fight child marriage with a PAS lawmaker as Deputy Minister, said she had no qualms with any policies as long as it was in line with the Quran and hadith.
In the same article, it was reported that ‘Siti Zailah was previously seen as endorsing child marriage, particularly in a July 2017 parliamentary debate’.
https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/514611
Given that a lawmaker who holds such a view is now Deputy Minister of the very Ministry that initiated the National Road Map to fight Child Marriage, it is indeed of obvious concern to many Malaysians, as to the stand of the PN government on child marriage.
It is the right and in fact the duty of every Malaysian, let alone elected representatives, to question, loudly, the government’s stand on fundamental issues. Equally, it is the duty of the government to provide clear answers.
Instead, in a clear act of intimidation, Hannah Yeoh has been hauled up by Bukit Aman to give a statement in relation to investigations about the tweet. Bukit Aman CID Chief Deputy Director confirmed that Hannah, MP for Segambut, is currently being investigated under Section 505 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, 1998.
Hannah acted within her role not only as opposition MP but also as ex Deputy Minister, to raise a very valid concern that Malaysians deserve clarity on.
The PDRM should respect the rights of Malaysians and MP’s to question and criticise actions of those in power, without fear. Is this not the foundation of a Democracy? The move to arbitrarily haul up an MP simply for asking a relevant question amounts to harassment by the police to silence those questioning government and government policies.
Malaysians are becoming a mature population who will no longer quietly accept abuse of process by those in power.
We stand in solidarity with Hannah Yeoh. We stand in solidarity with Democracy and the right to, always, question those in power.