PERCERAIAN, PENGISLAMAN, PERKAUMAN

Pada posting bertarikh 19hb april 2009, bertajuk "benarkah seorang bayi keturunan India dipaksa masuk Islam" saya ada menyentuh perihal sepasang suami isteri yang berkemungkinan telah berpisah dan berebut penjagaan anak-anak.

Pada hari ini sun2surf ada membawa laporan yang melibatkan Menteri sumber manusia, Datuk S. Subramaniam, dua menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, TS Koh Tsu Koon dan Datuk Jamil Khir serta Lim Kit Siang terlibat dalam kes di atas. Tidak timbul dalam laporan ini penglibatan Jabatan Agama Islam Perak atau NGO Islam yang lain.

Kita pun tidak jelas bagaimana kes ini boleh berlaku dan menjadi begitu menonjol di dada akhbar bukan bahasa Melayu.

Pengajarannya, jika kedua suami isteri-ibu ayah yang terlibat di atas merupakan saudara baru, amatlah penting pihak berwajib memantau dan memberi segala bentuk bantuan kepada pasangan serta keluarga berkenaan. Amatlah mudah mengajak dan membujuk seseorang yang bermasalah seperti pasangan yang ingin berkahwin, seorang bekas penagih, bekas penganggur, bekas banduan dan seumpamanya untuk dia mengucap dua kalimah syahadah, TETAPI yang sukar ialah "AFTER SALES SERVICE".

Closing the "sale" is very easy but to follow up and to look after their "hearts-iman" is extremely difficult and resource consuming. I have several experience in Australia to attest to that.

Kit Siang urges Cabinet to act fast on religious conversions

DAP veteran and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang today urged the Cabinet to find a swift solution in its meeting tomorrow on the case of three children being converted to Islam by their father without their mother's knowledge.

With the mother, Indira Ghandi, 34, and her two 11 and 12-year-old children present in a press conference in the party headquarters here today, Lim said the issue had yet to be resolved even after it was brought to the Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S Subramaniam.

Subramaniam was quoted saying on Tuesday that they had "identified the issues and discussed them but it will take a while before a solution can be found as it involves several agencies."

He had a meeting with Ministers in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon and Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom.

Lim said Subramaniam's statement was most unsatisfactory because there was no need for the three ministers to meet to identify the issue as it is a clear example of intrusion of the family integrity.


S Subramaniam
"It is not the first case as many similar cases had happened before, so there is no reason that 'it will take a while' for the issue to be resolved. The basic principle is that there should not be any prejudicial action by any member of family affecting the right of the children without the consent of both parents.

"The government must put a stop to it and the failure to take any immediate action is against what (Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak promised in his new administration of 1Malaysia, people first and performance now (concept)," he said, adding that the issue required "performance now and not performance that will take a while".

Lim said Subramaniam should resign as a minister if the case cannot be solved because "such issues have been long standing", beginning with the M. Moorthy conversion issue after his death in 2005.


A. Sivanesan
Perak executive councillor A. Sivanesan, who also present, said the father, Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah, 40, had allegedly taken away their one-year-old baby and used the birth certificates to covert their religion.

"Some amendments should be made to the matrimonial law so that before the Islamic Department accepts the conversion, the law should ensure that the marriage is resolved under the civil law," he said.

Indira, a kindergarten teacher, said: "I want back my children as Hindus."


Giam Say Khoon/sun2surf



Video Lim Kit Siang with M Indira Ghandi and kids