We celebrate for Madam Indira Gandhi. The decision of Federal Court is no doubt a very important one. However, justice delayed is justice denied. Madam Indira Gandhi has been separated from her youngest daughter Prasana Diksa, whom she had not seen since the latter was a baby. Who can compensate a mother for the 9 precious years she has lost with her daughter?
Rakyat waited for almost 8 years to see the proposed Section 88A introduced in the LRA when the bill was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat on November 21, 2016.
However, after postponing the second reading of the bill twice, ie the 3rd sitting of Parliamentary Session in 2016 and the 1st sitting of Parliamentary Session in 2017, the bill was finally passed in the last sitting but without Section 88A.
Azalina said she had already explained in Parliament that the government previously could not push forward a ban on unilateral conversions of minors due to the legal interpretation of Article 12 (4)’s definition of the word “parent”.
However, the Federal Court’s decision yesterday ruled that children could not be unilaterally converted to Islam and that this would require the consent of both parents.
The decision of Federal Court is consistent with our argument. The decision has proven that our interpretation of law is correct and the explanation offered by Azalina is merely a lame excuse.
Moreover, If constitutionality of the proposed Section 88A is really the issue and if Najib’s government really feels that an amendment to the Federal Constitution is needed to solve the issue once and for all, they could have easily done so especially when DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang during in a press conference, in the presence of Madam Indira Gandhi and her daughter, announced that all 36 MPs of DAP will support the amendment to Federal Constitution to end the issue of unilateral conversion.
So tell me Azalina, do you expect Indira Gandhi, her lawyer M Kulasegaran, and everyone of us, to be thankful to Najib for the Federal Court’s decision?