Demanding this at a media briefing today, Banggarma's lawyer Gooi Hsiao Leung pointed out that the conversion certificate dates the conversion at Dec 28, 1989.“The Welfare Department now claims that she was converted by her Hindu parents when she was a year old. There cannot be two conversions into Islam for the same person,” he said.
Gooi chided Penang Islamic Affairs Council (MAINPP) president Shabudin Yahaya for saying that Banggarma, 27, is a Muslim and that her marriage to a Hindu is a legal issue.
He said the Welfare Department and Islamic authorities have failed to address the key question on the conversion of a minor by the administrators of the welfare home.
Section 80 of the Penang Administration of Islamic Affairs Enactment 1993 stipulates that anyone below the age of 18 shall not be converted to Islam without the consent of his or her parents.
Banggarma's conversion, Gooi said, was illegal from the start.
“By converting her at (the age of seven), the Islamic authorities infringed their own law.”Gooi hoped that MAINPP will assist Banggarma by expunging records of her conversion, so that the issue can be resolved amicably.
Banggarma, who was present, told reporters that her father had never mentioned anything about the 1983 conversion.
“My father is a practising Hindu like me,” she said, showing a photo of her father with vibuthi (sacred ash) on his forehead.
He had enrolled her and three siblings - two elder brothers and a younger sister - at the home, after its welfare officers convinced him to do so, she said.
“He was shocked to hear that my siblings and I were converted to Islam in the welfare home,” Banggarma said, alleging that the four were then separated and have not met since.
'Welfare Department lied'
Meme had told Malaysiakini yesterday that Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, was placed into the welfare home in Kepala Batas in March 1990 following a order under the Juvenile Courts Act of 1947, for her own protection.
Meme claimed Banggarma was found wandering aimlessly in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
Questioning this, Banggarma pointed to the conversion certificate which shows that she was converted in 1989.
“It's a lie. The department is trying to cover this up,” said the mother of two.Due to her Muslim name in her identity card, she has not been able to register her marriage to S Sockalingam. It had been conducted according to Hindu rites.
She has also been unable to register her husband as the father of the children in their birth certificates.
Her birth certificate shows that she was born on Aug 13, 1982 in Keratong, Pahang to plantation worker B Subramaniam and Latchumy Ramadu, both Hindus.
Describing herself as a staunch Hindu, Banggarma said she would fight till the end to restore her rightful identity.
“I was born as a Hindu, I live as a Hindu, I will die as a Hindu,” she said.
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Refrain from converting under-21s’
Posted on 01 December 2009
The yet-to-be-registered Human Rights Party (HRP) has written to the premier, asking him to prevent the “forced and unwitting conversion” of children to Islam.
Pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said Najib Abdul Razak should issue an immediate circular to schools, educational institutions, welfare homes and related bodies, directing them not to convert those below 21.
He also said Najib should direct the Islamic authorities to enable those who have claimed to have been either forced or unwittingly converted to Islam, to revert to their original religion or to one of their choice.
In the letter dated Nov 28, Uthayakumar said ‘Islamised’ Malaysians should be granted their constitutional rights, including freedom of religion.
“Mr Prime Minister, these events of conversions are completely unnecessary. We should instead optimally utilise our time and energy to focus on nation-building in the true 1Malaysia spirit championed by your goodself,” he wrote.
Referring to the case of S Banggarma, 27, Uthayakumar said the Penang Islamic Religious Department and Islamic Religious Affairs Council should be made to reverse her conversion to Islam.
Now a mother of two, she claimed that she was unwittingly converted by two state religious authorities when she was seven and staying in the Taman Bakti children’s home in Kepala Batas.
Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, said she only discovered her religious status when she went back to the welfare home to collect her identity documents in 2000. She is now seeking to revert to Hinduism.
Uthayakumar described her predicition as a case of “poverty-linked conversion”, in that she ended up in a welfare home because she was from a poor family. He said the welfare department took advantage of this to convert her to Islam.
‘Don’t use force’
In claiming that this is not an isolated case, he said forced conversions are rampant in orphanages, welfare homes, fully-residential government schools and other educational institutions.
He cited a 2007 case in which a 17-year-old Hindu youth, who was studying at a residential vocational school, was “pressured and brainwashed” to convert to Islam.
“This youth was then told not to inform his parents or anyone else,” he said in the letter to Najib.
However, the boy’s friend informed the father, who removed his son from the school.
“That was the end of his vocational skills training and his future career,” said Uthayakumar.
Although a letter was sent to then premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the forced conversion has yet to be reversed.
Uthayakumar pointed out that even PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has said that no one should be forced to convert to Islam.
It is the responsibility of Muslims, who make up the majority, to safeguard the interests and rights of the minority, he said.
Although Article 11 of the federal constitution guarantees freedom of religion, Umno-trained Islamic officers have been known to take the law into their own hands.
“How can Malaysians interact, foster genuine national unity and national integration, and co-exist as fellow Malaysians or as human beings in the first place?” he posed in the letter.
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