Pinda undang-undang, bolehkan bukan Islam hadir ke Mahkamah Syariah, kata peguam Islam

Persatuan Peguam Muslim Malaysia (PPMM) menggesa agar kerajaan meminda undang-undang bagi membolehkan individu bukan Islam dibenarkan menghadiri sesi perbicaraan di Mahkamah Syariah bagi menuntut keadilan.

Presiden PPMM, Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar ketika mengulas berhubung isu hak penjagaan anak beragama Islam oleh ibu beragama Hindu berkata, terdapat pertindihan perintah antara Mahkamah Syariah dan Mahkamah Sivil dalam isu yang berlaku di Seremban itu.

"PPMM menyeru agar undang-undang dipinda bagi membolehkan orang bukan Islam dibenarkan hadir ke mahkamah syariah bagi menuntut keadilan kerana keadilan Islam adalah bersifat sejagat," katanya.

"Negara Brunei Darussalam contohnya hanya mensyaratkan sekurang-kurangnya satu pihak beragama Islam sahaja bagi menghadiri prosiding di mahkamah syariahnya," tambah Zainul Rijal dalam kenyataan di Kuala Lumpur.

Kerani dari Seremban, S Deepa sebelum ini menerima hak penjagaan dua anaknya oleh Mahkamah Tinggi, sekaligus mengenepikan keputusan Mahkamah Syariah Seremban yang sebelum itu memberikan hak penjagaan kepada bapa mereka yang memeluk Islam.

N Viran, yang menukar nama kepada Izwan Abdullah bagaimanapun melarikan anak mereka, Mithan, 6, sehari selepas keputusan berkenaan dibuat Mahkamah Tinggi.

"Berilah peluang kepada kedua belah pihak menyelesaikan pertikaian mereka di mahkamah dan pihak yang tidak berkenaan tidak perlu beremosi di dalam menghadi kemelut sebegini," kata Zainul Rijal.

Beliau berkata lagi, oleh kerana hal ini berkaitan kekeluargaan, adalah tidak molek pihak berkuasa menggunakan tindakan undang-undang termasuk mendakwa Izwan atas apa jua tuduhan.

"Terdapat pelbagai penghakiman mahkamah tertinggi negara yang memutuskan isu-isu sebegini yang boleh dijadikan rujukan," katanya.

Beliau berkata, isu agama anak tidak diputuskan di dalam penghakiman yang diberikan oleh Mahkamah Tinggi Seremban, tetapi suatu fatwa telahpun dikeluarkan oleh Mufti kerajaan Negeri Sembilan berhubung keislaman anak-anak tersebut.

"Izwan tidak boleh dikenakan dakwaan menghina mahkamah kerana beliau mempunyai perintah hak jagaan yang sah dikeluarkan oleh Mahkamah Syariah Seremban.

"Perintah tersebut berkuatkuasa sehinggalah ianya dibatalkan," katanya .

Viran, bekerja sebagai pemandu lori meninggalkan Deepa dan anak-anaknya tiga tahun lalu dan memeluk Islam menggunakan nama Izwan.

Deepa kemudian mendapati anak-anaknya, Sharmila (Nurul Nabila) 9, dan Mithran (Nabil), 6, diislamkan tanpa pengetahuannya pada April.

Selepas Mahkamah Tinggi memberikan hak penjagaan kepadanya pada Isnin, Izwan bagaimanapun pada Rabu pergi ke rumah Deepa di Jelebu dan merampas anak lelaki mereka.

Deepa berkata kepada polis beliau gagal menghalangnya kerana pakaiannya tersangkut pada pintu kereta dan diseret.

Malah, beliau turut mendakwa bekas suaminya turut menendangnya.

Polis bagaimanapun, berkata mereka tidak akan bertindak terhadap laporan terbaru Deepa kerana dua mahkamah memberikan hak penjagaan kanak-kanak terhadap ibu dan bapa mereka.

Zainul Rijal berkata, sebagai seorang mualaf yang terdahulunya berkahwin secara sivil melalui Akta Membaharui Undang-Undang (Perkahwinan Dan Perceraian) 1976 Izwan tidak diberikan hak melalui Seksyen 51 Akta tersebut untuk membubarkan perkahwinan sivilnya.

Oleh yang demikian, beliau melaksanakannya di bawah Enakmen Undang Undang Keluarga Islam (Negeri Sembilan) 2003.

Suruhanjaya Ong yang menggubal Akta Membaharui Undang-Undang, khususnya Seksyen 51 tersebut berprasangka buruk terhadap mualaf yang memeluk Islam sehingga 'menghukum' mualaf tersebut tidak mempunyai hak memfailkan perceraian berbanding pasangan yang tidak memeluk Islam.

"Sebagai seorang yang menganut agama Islam, Izwan tertakluk kepada perintah Mahkamah Syariah dan mempunyai obligasi menjaga maqasid al shariah termasuklah hifz al deen (menjaga agama)," katanya. – 12 April, 2014.

US denies MH370 landed at Diego Garcia military base in Indian Ocean, says report

The United States today has refuted rumours that missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 could have landed at its military base on the remote island of Diego Garcia, the Daily Mirror reported.

The English daily quoted a spokesman for the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur as saying that there was no truth to this speculation.

"There is no indication that flight MH370 flew anywhere near the Maldives or Diego Garcia," Daily Mirror quoted the spokesman who told The Star in an email.

"Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia," he said.

The Daily Mirror reported that there had been rumours circulating that MH370 could have headed for the small coral atoll in the Indian Ocean after going off-course.

Flight MH370 departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 bound for Beijing.

The aircraft, carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers, dropped off the radar at 1.20am and has not been located since.

More than 20 nations are involved in the biggest search and rescue operation ever to locate the missing aircraft, believed to have gone down in the southern Indian Ocean, off Western Australia.

Earlier today, New Straits Times reported that Fariq Abdul Hamid, the co-pilot of missing flight MH370, attempted to make a phone call from his mobile phone while the aircraft was flying over Penang.

In an exclusive, the daily reported that Fariq's attempt ended abruptly as MH370 was flying away from the telecommunications tower.

This is the latest breakthrough in the ongoing criminal investigation as police traced the source of the call to Fariq's mobile phone.

According to NST’s report, the aircraft was flying at an altitude low enough for the nearest telecommunications tower to pick up Fariq's phone signal.

However, it has not been ascertained who he was attempting to call, as sources declined to divulge the information, the daily reported.

The daily also reported that Fariq's last communication was through the WhatsApp messenger application at 11.30pm on March 7, just before he boarded Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 for the journey to Beijing.

"Checks on Fariq's phone history showed that the last person he spoke to was one of his regular contacts (a number that frequently appears on his outgoing phone logs).

"This call was made no more than two hours before the flight took off at 12.41am from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport," NST reported.

Although investigations have been ongoing since March 8, police have not cleared either the crew members or the passengers. – April 12, 2014.

IGP blasted for inaction on civil court decision

 

The inspector general of police (IGP) has been widely blasted for claiming the police are bound by both civil and syariah law when responding to the abduction of the child in S Deepa's custody case.

Yesterday IGP Khalid Abu Bakar said they were not investigating the case as "there are two court orders, one civil and syariah court" and that "both are binding".

Malaysian Indians Progressive Association (Mipas) secretary general S Barathidasan (right) slammed Khalid asking, "Which one is the supreme court of Malaysia, the civil court or the syariah court?

"The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) has not set up a special squad yet to deal with syariah offences. So now the PDRM follows which orders, the civil or the syariah?"

Barathidasan said he was "truly shocked" by the IGP's statement.

"Would Khalid do the same if the (situation) was reversed andthe kidnap was by a Hindu mother?"

On Monday the High Court awarded Deepa custody of her two children, overruling a Syariah Court decision obtained last year by her ex-husband who had converted to Islam the same year

Justice Zabariah Mohd Yusof ruled this as her marriage to N Viran @ Izwan Abdullah was based on civil law.

Two days after her victory, her husband reportedly abducted their son and allegedly kicked her as she was trying to stop him driving away.

Two ex-law ministers: IGP wrong

Meanwhile according to The Star today, two former law ministers Nazri Abdul Aziz and Zaid Ibrahim have also flayed the IGP for his statement.

Nazri pointed out that Deepa's marriage is a civil matter and that "the High Court judge’s ruling was correct".

"The police shouldn’t allow him to get away with kidnapping the child,” he was reported saying.

Presently the tourism and culture minister, Nazri added the matter was "a clear-cut case of kidnapping".

“This isn’t a question of Izwan Abdullah being right under Syariah law.

“It is a civil law marriage, it is the civil court, we must respect the civil court’s ruling. They have the jurisdiction," he was reported saying.

He added that conversion to Islam should not be used as a "tool to escape marriage responsibilities".

The same report quoted Zaid saying, “To say they (the police) respect both court orders and therefore will do nothing is irresponsible, and this leaves a negative perception of them."

He said Khalid should have contacted the attorney-general or the prime minister on the matter.

The Attorney-General (AG) Abdul Gani Patail meanwhile was reported saying he will not comment until the police's investigations is referred to his Chambers.

Are police Muslims first?

Barathidasan further flayed Khalid (below) for taking sides when it came to interreligious matters.

"Is the police only for Muslims first? Mipas urges the PDRM to be more professional, efficient and world-class without any political influence," he said.

He pointed out that the police have yet to question Izwan for the abduction, and have failed to act on the father's contempt of court.

"Mipas is wondering why none of Hindus in PDRM, A Thaiveegan, A Paramasivam and many other highest ranked police officers are keeping silent on this serious issue," he added.

He said this case should not have happened in the first place, and called for the necessary laws to be amended "to spell out that the consent of both parents are needed to convert the children, and that when a spouse converts, the (other spouse) must be notified about the conversion and its legal implications" among others.

Barathidasan said the IGP is "misleading the public" and also demanded the PDRM and government "immediately stop protecting and encouraging pro-government lobbyists that are backing Izwan.

Masyarakat India marah FB 1 juta sokong Shabery Cheek

Gambar yang dimuat naik pada 10 April itu telah dikongsi seramai 121 pengguna Facebook lain dan mendapat 32 ‘Like’

PETALING JAYA: Posting yang dikeluarkan oleh laman Facebook ‘1 Juta Rakyat Malaysia Menyokong Shabery Cheek’ telah menaikkan kemarahan dan kekecewaan masyarakat India di Malaysia lantas dapat memusnahkan keharmonian masyarakat Malaysia.

Page tersebut telah memuat naik gambar masyarakat India yang berpusu-pusu mencium kaki dengan menulis kapsyen “Festival cium tapak kaki tuhan boroi peneguk todi ….hairanlah, kenapa puak-puak India ni sanggup habiskan masa dan wang semata-mata mahu menyembah tuhan yg tidak wujud ini ? kaki siap pakai inai. Hahahahahahah . Keling bodoh !!!!!!”.

Gambar yang dimuat naik pada 10 April itu telah dikongsi seramai 121 pengguna Facebook lain, dan mendapat telah sebanyak 32 ‘Like’.

Salah seorang pengguna Facebook, Mazlan Harun membantah posting yang dikeluarkan oleh pengendali halaman ‘1 Juta Rakyat Malaysia Menyokong Shabery Cheek’ dengan menulis komen “apa la!!!! admin ni ! tidak baik kutuk-kutuk agama orang! Nanti diri sendiri yangg dapat musibah!”

Bagi pengguna Facebook Munirah Murad pula, beliau membantah kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh pengendali halaman tersebut dan menyifatkan tindakan tersebut cuba memainkan sentimen menghina kaum lain dengan membalas kenyataan “Kau kenapa admin? itu agama masing-masing, ikut diaorang lah.. kau ni agama apa ya?? Atau saja nak memecah belahkan kaum ni?”

Malah, Dineshwary Dinesh yang juga merupakan pengguna Facebook berbangsa India turut tidak bersetuju, “Kau orang boleh sembahyang, kita orang tidak boleh sembayang ikut adat kita ke? siapa keling bodoh kalau berani cakap depan kaum kita, tengok diri sendiri dulu, ini nak sebuk pasal orang lain pulak…”

Manakala bagi pengguna Facebook Raj Kumar Subramanian, beliau membantah perkara tersebut dengan menulis komen, “ Deyyyy…. bila masa laa Malaysia boleh satu hati….. biar kerajaan berpecah belah.. janganlah kita….. kalau ada lagi orang macam lu…. habis laaa Malaysia…”

Bagi Prem Prabha, beliau menyifatkan admin page tersebut sebagai individu yang tidak bijak dan seorang yang rasis.

“Bodoh punya pengendali halaman 1 Juta Rakyat Malaysia Menyokong Shabery Cheek, jangan malukan Islam! sebab orang bodoh macam kau orang lain pandang rendah pada agama Islam, ‘sorry to say my Malay friends’, saya hairan ada lagi orang rasis macam ini dalam dunia moden ini dan saya ada ramai kawan-kawan melayu dan kawan kawan-kawan Islam dari Yemen dan Somalia, saya memang respect kawan-kawan saya dan kawan-kawan saya semua yang selalu sembayang lima waktu dan yang betul-betul mwngikut ajaran Islam. Memang jauh berbeza admin ‘page’ ini dengan kawan-kawan saya. Kepada admin page ini, ‘you are fail as a muslim’. Your god is watching you. Tuhan itu adil, kamu pasti akan terima balasan daripada tuhan kamu,”

IGP taken to task for not acting on abduction case

Hindraf and Gerakan are of the opinion that the IGP by ignoring the abduction is condoning lawlessness in the country.

GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf and Gerakan say that the Inspector-General of Police by ignoring the abduction of a six- year- old boy from his mother is encouraging citizens to take the law into their own hands

Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy alleged that IGP Khalid Abu Bakar had encouraged citizens to take the law into their own hands by washing his hands off the issue.

He was referring to the abduction of Mithran by his father Izwan Viran Abdullah, 31, from his mother S Deepa, 30, in Jelebu, Negeri Sembilan on Wednesday morning.

“This condones lawlessness in the country,” warned Waythamoorthy in a statement to FMT here today.

Gerakan national human rights and legal bureau chief Baljit Singh slammed Khalid for acting as “investigators, judges and executioners” in the abduction case.

The Seremban High Court had on Monday granted the children’s custody to Deepa.Deepa lodged a police report on the same day at the Jelebu police headquarters.

IGP Khalid has advised Deepa and Izwan to settle their problem privately.

“There are two court orders – civil and syariah. In this case it is best if the two can settle their problem,” said Khalid.

By suggesting for the estranged couple to settle their differences privately, Waythamoorty said the top cop in the country was sending the wrong signals and evading police duty.

He said Khalid should own up to his responsibilities under the Constitution and law as criminal act was against the state.

“Police should investigate and take the correct action on the abductor.

“The mother needs protection from law enforcement officers to enforce her civil rights,” said the human rights leader.

Baljit reminded that the police duty was to immediately investigate into a police report without prejudice and handover their findings to the Attorney-General Chambers for further action.

He said it would be then up to the AG Chambers, not for the police, to decide on whether to charge Iswan or not.

Based on Deepa’s report, he said her ex-husband had illegally taken away the son and caused injuries to her.

He pointed out that the civil court ruling on the custody rights awarded to Deepa came with full knowledge of syariah court order given to Iswan.

Thus, he said the civil court custody order overruled the syariah order.

“Deepa has a case.

“Iswan had allegedly committed crime and defied the superior civil court order.

“Police should probe it and should not wash their hands.Police should remain as investigators only,” insisted Baljit.

Waythamoorty said the IGP had blatantly ignored Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which stipulated that all citizens were equal before the law and were entitled to equal protection of the law.

He said Article 8 pointed out that clear intention of the country’s forefathers, who drafted the Federal Constitution, was that all citizens were entitled for equality of the law under civil jurisdiction.

“By deliberately playing dumb, the IGP is pro-actively encouraging citizens to take the law into the own hands.

“If the ex-husband is encouraged by the top law enforcement officer, then he condones lawlessness as the ex-wife can do the same thing,” said Wathamoorthy.

Both Waythamoorthy and Baljit however, raised doubts on police impartiality in upholding the law if the Hindu mother was the abductor.

They believe that if scenario was reversed, there would be an immediate arrest of Deepa.

They said she would be detained and remanded, charged for abduction and denied bail.

“The custody rights over the children would be given by default to the Muslim convert husband,” alleged Waythamoorthy and Baljit, both lawyers .

Waythamoorthy pointed out since Deepa’s wedding was a civil marriage, the custody dispute should be determined by the civil courts, which it did in this case.

He stressed non-Muslims were not subjected Muslim laws while all citizens were subjected to civil laws.

“But the IGP allows himself to be a tool of Muslim extreme laws, which do not govern the law of this land,” alleged Waythamoorthy.

He recalled that in 2009, then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz announced that the government would ban the unilateral child conversion of aged below 18 to Islam.

In 2013, Nazri against spoke out against a proposed law to defeat the decision made by the Cabinet in 2009. He said he would always stand by on the ban on unilateral conversion.

‘Take action against Izwan’

The abduction of S Deepa's son by her ex-husband is a kidnapping case and the police must act on it, says politicians and NGO leader.

PETALING JAYA: Women rights activist, Maria Chin Abdullah took the police to task today for not taking action on the abduction of S Deepa’s son, saying it was a criminal act.

“It is nothing short of kidnapping, especially after the Seremban High Court granted the right of custody to the wife,” she told FMT today, adding that the police should take action on the matter.

On Wednesday, Deepa’s ex-husband Izwan Abdullah forcefully snatched away their son from her workplace after the high court granted custody to the mother.

Izwan had also assaulted Deepa in the scuffle.

Despite a police report lodged on the matter, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said yesterday that the police would not act against the husband and urged the couple to sort out the matter privately.

He also said that the high court order’s clashed with a Syariah court’s ruling last year that gave Izwan right of custody to both his children.

Deepa has since gone into hiding, fearing that Izwan may abduct their daughter too.

Maria, who heads a community empowerment NGO, Empower, said that action should be taken against Izwan for violating the high court order.

She also said it was irresponsible of the police to say that they can’t act on the matter when they were supposed to protect public safety.

Earlier today, former law minister Nazri Aziz had also criticised the police for their response, saying it was a clear cut case of kidnapping.

He also said the Cabinet had decided in 2009 that the children be raised in the common religion at the time of marriage, should one of their parent convert to Islam.

“This is not a question of Izwan being right under Syariah law.It is a civil law marriage, it is the civil court, we must respect the civil court’s ruling. They have the jurisdiction.

““The high court ruling was correct. The police should not allow him to get away with kidnapping the child,” he told English daily The Star.

DAP MP M Kulasegaran echoed Nazri’s sentiments, saying that Khalid response to the kidnapping was irresponsible and unprofessional.

“The IGP must act on this. If he is not prepared to do his job, Khalid might as well resign from his post.” he said, in a statement.

IGP should resign immediately

The latest court order is needed to uphold the situation but the IGP and police force washed their hands.

Saravanan

We are shocked to see the reaction of the IGP who is not upholding the country’s law. We are urging the current IGP to resign from his post if he cannot or fail to do his duty.

Malaysia is a country which has a Constitution and the police force is supposed to follow the order of the Federal Constitution. When the court decision was made by the civil court judge, the IGP or even the king must obey the law. It is the work of the police to see that the judgement is carried out. It is irresponsible for IGP Khalid Abu Bakar to say, “Settle your problem privately”. If everyone decided to settle the country’s complications privately, where is the need for the police and judiciary systems? The IGP is inefficient; you need to go back to school or go and sell nasi lemak and karipap in your kampung.

1. The Syariah court order was overturned by the civil court this week. So the latest court order is needed to uphold the situation but the IGP and police force washed their hands.

2. The case would have been resolved but the police force and the IGP took the side of the convert father to kidnap his own son without the mother’s permission. A police report has been made but no action taken.

3. The UMNO government needs to make a stand as their double law system is complicating the police. The police are not in a position to take action or speak for either party because the whole mistake was done by UMNO by complicating the system.

4. “Police are not worried about the child’s safety as he is with his father” said the IGP but the son complained to the judge that the father had been beating him and there were times when no food was given. It is a case of child abuse. Why can’t the IGP act on this child abuse case?

5. If Syariah law does not bind Non-Muslims, we strongly suggest the law makers say Deepa and her underage kids are still Hindus and Syariah or forced conversions cannot take place in this civil society.

6. We need immediate action from all parliamentarians to debate this matter. The country is struggling with racism, religious bigotry and double systems. Wake up and save the land which you love before our egos put the country in bad shape.

7. The UMNO government is obliged to amend article 121A for bringing chaos to the country. They are responsible for disunity in the country. MIC and MCA who supported UMNO’s atrocities must play their role to go against their TUAN which is acting against humanity or UN resolutions.

Time to re-look law, say politicians

(The Star) – Parliament has been urged to legislate and resolve the longstanding conflict between the rights of a convert and his former spouse, especially when it encompasses the rights and interest of their children.

MIC’s legal adviser Selva Mookiah said the danger of conflict was real and apparent as the country had two sets of laws.

“These courts of law often give consideration to differing principles.

“We live in a plural society which is multi-religious and often it’s the rights of the affected children which are trampled upon when their parents exercise their rights under the different laws.

“Both parents have legitimate expectations that their rights will be safeguarded. For the sake of the children, Parliament needs to take a non-partisan leadership in resolving this conflict permanently,” he said.

Thus, he said, it is especially pertinent for Parliament to act now, bearing in mind that there are those who are pursuing a parallel criminal hudud system which could further complicate matters.

MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon also urged lawmakers to “take the issue to Parliament and get a solution once and for all.”

“This two-law system is a serious problem, especially in a secular country.”

MCA Syariah Law and Policy Implementation special task force deputy chairman Datuk Koo Chin Nam said civil law had to prevail in legal disputes.

“The marriage was contracted by civil law and hence may only be dissolved by civil law. All matters related to the dissolution of marriage like matrimony, assets, and in particular, custody must be decided by civil law.”

MCA Religious Harmony Bureau chief and lawyer Datuk Ti Lian Ker also said parliamentarians had an obligation to clarify conversion issues.

“Lawmakers must stand up together above politics and do what is right by rectifying or remedying any conflict of laws. As far as the Constitution is concerned, it has never placed Syariah above civil law, especially when it involves non-Muslims.”

PAS legal bureau chief Hanifah Maidin said it was also time to re-look laws governing the conversion of married people with children as the conflict between Syariah and civil courts was a longstanding problem.

“When non-Muslims get married, they will register under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976.

“If the husband or wife converts to Islam, he or she cannot go to civil court pertaining to family matters,” he said.

He added that the converted partner would have to go to Syariah court, thus leading to jurisdictional conflict between two courts.

Hanifah called for the law to be amended with just the civil court having jurisdiction.

“However, there should be a caveat, where the presiding judge should be assisted by an advisory council, which will look into Islamic matters.

“Such a solution may not solve the problem altogether, but it could minimise it,” he said.

Shariah court has no say over civil marriages, lawyers say

A Muslim convert who lost a custody battle in the Seremban High Court recently must abide by the decision that prevails over an earlier Shariah court ruling in his favour, lawyers said.

The Shariah court lacks jurisdiction over custody cases in a civil marriage even if one party later converts to Islam, they added.

“If the Shariah court pronounces Islamic divorce on an Islamic marriage, then it can make orders on custody. But it has no jurisdiction over a civil marriage,” prominent lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar told The Malay Mail Online.

“Under the civil law which is the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, the court that has the jurisdiction to make the determination on the civil marriage is the civil high court, that would include any orders pertaining to custody and so on,” he added.

In the Seremban case, Viran Nagapan married Deepa Subramaniam (pic above) in a civil marriage in 2004. Viran later converted to Islam in 2012 and took on the name Izwan Abdullah.

A Shariah court granted Izwan custody of the couple’s children last year.

On Monday, the Seremban High Court’s Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof granted Deepa full custody of the couple’s two children as their marriage was a civil union and did not come under Shariah law.

The court also allowed Deepa to divorce her husband.

Just two days after losing the custody battle, Viran allegedly abducted his son from Deepa.

Viran’s action on Wednesday had since been backed by the Negri Sembilan chapter of Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysian (Isma), with its state deputy chief Omar Kassim claiming that Viran was “desperate” and was not in contempt of the court.

But citing the Federal Constitution’s Ninth Schedule, lawyer Nizam Bashir said that a Shariah court only has jurisdiction over Muslims.

A non-Muslim parent would not be given a chance to defend his or her rights in a Shariah court, he added.

Nizam explained that a civil court would be a more appropriate venue for both Muslim and non-Muslim parents to decide on child custody, as it safeguards the interests of both parties.

“If you have the matter heard in the civil court, both parties have the right to be heard. Both parties have the right to impart religious instruction to the child,” the experienced syarie lawyer told The Malay Mail Online.

Constitutional lawyer Edmund Bon also added that the Seremban HIgh Court ruling was made after taking into account the custody order by the Shariah court.

“The High Court, being a civil court, has a jurisdiction applicable to all parties. The High Court has the power to review or ignore the previous Shariah court order,” Bon said in a telephone interview.

On Wednesday, Bon, representing the Bar Council, was an expert witness in a high-profile child custody battle of a similar nature in the Ipoh High Court.

In the case, M. Indira Gandhi’s estranged husband who had converted to Islam ran away with the couple’s child.

According to Bon, the Bar Council’s stand is that the High Court could quash the Shariah Court’s custody order, as the latter is an “inferior tribunal”.

Bon also insisted that the civil court’s order should have been enforced accordingly, and Viran could not have used the Shariah court’s order as an excuse to abduct the child.

“In any event, from the reported incident, it appears to be a case of kidnapping or abduction,” said Bon.

Malik said that a parent who knowingly flouts a custody order could be in contempt of court, saying: “In general, if the court has made an order granting custody to one parent, if the other parent takes the child and breaches the order, it’s in violation.”

Deepa is expected to file for committal soon, which may allow the civil court to issue a warrant to arrest Izwan for contempt of court.

It is understood that Viran, who currently works for an Islamic NGO called Kasih Sayang, had converted both their children in April last year without Deepa’s consent.

Deepa, who filed for divorce and custody of the children in December last year, has been estranged from her husband since 2011.

Why no action on mass conversions into Islam, ask Sabah Christians

Desmond Davidson, The Malaysian Insider

Sabah religious authorities have been asked to “nullify without further delay” all the mass conversions of natives into Islam that had taken place in the state, which Christian leaders said were performed fraudulently.

President of the Protestant Church in Sabah, Reverend Jensey Mojuin, addressing the monthly ethnic Kadazan-Dusun Christians’ gathering in Pitas this morning to sound their latest mamangkis, said no action had been taken despite police reports lodged on the matter.

“Three months had passed since the ‘shameful’ conversion of about 64 people, including children, from three villages – namely Kampung Layung Maliau, Dowokon and Sosop.

“Despite lodging police reports, no concrete action has been taken,” Mojuin said.

He said the inaction could only mean that the “extremist group” which performed the conversion “are enjoying the support and protection of some powerful people”.

He did not say who the powerful people were but the group reportedly was a Selangor-based Islamic non-governmental organisation known for its extremist religious views.

Mojuin said the mass conversion in Pitas, a majority of whom were followers of his church, was unjust and fraudulent and had threatened the peace and religious harmony enjoyed for so long in Sabah.

Pitas, up one of the “dog ears” of Sabah, is reportedly one of the poorest district in the state.

To get to Kampung Layung Maliau, one of the remotest villages in the district, is a three-hour walk from the suspension bridge across Sungai Penipak.

Villagers here are largely subsistence farmers planting tapioca, vegetables and maize. The village has neither electricity nor running water.

The 33 “converted” villagers there claimed on New Year’s Day, they were deceived into converting by the group, saying their presence in the Pitas town mosque where they were asked to go to was only to receive financial assistance.

They claimed they were promised RM800 per head but in the envelope they were given after signing some documents contained only RM100.

They said they were illiterate and no one explained what the form was about.

“This so-called mass conversion is, therefore, illegal,” said Mojuin, adding that it was done with deception.

“These extremists took advantage of those who are illiterate and extremely poor to trick them into thinking that they were bringing welfare aid from the government.

“Some accepted the so-called welfare aid and were asked to sign a document.

“This document is now used as proof that they have agreed to become Muslims,” he said.

Mojuin also slammed the government policy where Sabah Bumiputeras with a “bin” or “binti” in their names were automatically listed as Muslims in their MyKad.

That, he said, was “Putrajaya’s MyKad Islamisation of Bumiputera Christians in Sabah”.

On the use of the word “Allah”, Mojuin said “regardless of what Putrajaya or any earthly courts may say or do”, Bumiputera Christians in Sabah would continue to use the word “Allah” as their forefathers had done so.

“Let us make it very clear about that.

“Further, both the Sabah and Sarawak governments have assured us that we can continue to use the word as this has been used for generations.”
READ MORE HERE

India’s Grain Drain

Written by Neeta Lal 


Millions of children starve while up to 30 percent of the harvest is wasted

At a time when UNICEF says 43 percent of Indian children under five are underweight and over 3,000 die every day from malnutrition-related illnesses, the country stands out for its glaring lack of food storage facilities, leading to colossal wastage.

Stories are rife of millions of tonnes of farmers’ grains stored in outdoor depots across the country, vulnerable to rodents, moisture, birds and pests. Added to that is the fact that the country’s distribution system is so deficient that widespread malnutrition can exist side by side with bulging grain depots.

India is one of the world’s top producers of food grains and a formidable exporter of rice – the world’s biggest – but paradoxically it also leads the tally of nations with the maximum number of starvation-related deaths. A new industry study states that 20-30 percent of India’s food grain harvest is wasted annually due to poor storage facilities.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India points to inadequate storage capacity, regional imbalance in warehouses, lack of adequate scientific storage and inefficient logistical management as the leading causes. The warehousing capacity for major food grains available in India, in public, co-operative and private sector, say agriculture analysts, is more than 112 million tonnes.

However, there is an extreme dearth of about 35 million tons of warehousing capacity and a massive food grain storage shortfall of about 8 million tons in the country to be filled by 2017.

“India needs to recalibrate its strategy to mitigate the challenges of high food grain wastage due to lack of scientific storage facilities,” according to the associated chambers.

While recent advances in agricultural technology have facilitated higher grain yields, the lack of commensurate attention to storage facilities nixes farmers’ efforts, leading to a snowballing effect on food prices and starvation.

Ironically, while the Indian government keeps buying food grains from the farmers, it doesn’t have space to store it. The state-owned food buying agency – the Food Corporation of India – is plagued by deficient modern grain storage facilities.

In 2013, officials estimated that 6 million tonnes of India’s grain worth US $1.5 billion were rendered inedible due to spoilage.

"For the last 30 years, the storage capacity for grains has not been upgraded at all in India," says Dr. Subbu Rao, an agriculture economist, formerly with the United Nations.

Entrenched corruption only makes things worse. Stories of distributors mixing rotting grain with fresh grain and selling it on the market are legion. Hundreds of government officials are also known to redirect billions of dollars worth of grain away from the poor and into local and global markets.

Bureaucratic apathy is hard to miss. In 2010, when the Supreme Court directed the government to give grain to the hungry for free rather than let it rot, state governments ignored the request or only distributed grain with low, subsidized prices to people with ration cards.

A senior official of the federal government’s Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority told Asia Sentinel that 13 percent of gross domestic product is wasted each year because of the wastage of food grains in the supply chain.

“We waste the amount equivalent to what Australia produces annually. Wastage of fruits and vegetables is even higher than grains,” he added.

To reduce the spoilage, the Food Corporation opted to export wheat. But India also needs to store grains for the starving, literally for a rainy day as it is a monsoon-dependent agrarian economy.

Total foodgrain production in India stands at around 255 million tonnes which includes around 105 million tonnes of rice (milled basis). In 2012, the government claimed that the state FCI, has reduced wastage of foodgrains from 2.5 percent five years ago to 0.006 percent in 2012 despite 150 percent growth in foodgrain stocks during the period.

The Food Minister had called the reduction in wastage a major achievement of the FCI. According to ASSOCHAM, about 70 percent of warehousing space in India is owned by government agencies.

Food grain wastage is also detrimental for environmental, ethical and economical reasons. According to the UNEP, global food production occupies 25 percent of all habitable land and is responsible for 70 percent of fresh water consumption, 80 percent of deforestation and 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. When food is wasted, so are the resources and the efforts in producing it. Hence, controlling food wastage will organically reduce food requirements and the inputs that go into its production.

The UPA-led government fought tooth and nail last year to push through a controversial food security bill despite strident criticism that it would give two-third of Indians a legal right to affordable food. However, experts rubbish the move as political gimmickry, a ploy to harvest votes for the general elections.

“The scheme is mined with the same usual pitfalls of corrupt officials diverting food grains for money,” said Vibha Sharma, an activist who works with a Delhi-based NGO. Besides, the government can ill-afford a plan costing as much as US$12 billion in additional subsidies a year when the economy is sputtering, she adds.

Studies point out that at least 12.5 million people could have been fed if India had better food storage facilities. A dilapidated food storage infrastructure continues to result in high wastage of food grains in a country which, by one count, has 200 million food-insecure people.

Agriculturists say food wastage can occur anywhere in the food supply chain—production, processing, storage, transportation and consumption. Bad post-harvest management and insufficient infrastructural facilities further compound the problem. As opposed to China, which has a grain storage capacity of 150 million tonnes, India can boast of warehouses only a third that amount. The country is thus in dire need of upgraded food storage and transportation facilities as well as measures to plug its leak-prone food supply chain.

Though the per capita food wastage by consumers is low in India compared to developed economies, 70 percent of Indians live on less than US$ 2 a day and don’t contribute to this wastage.

The real reason for food waste, as pointed out by the Indian Institute of Public Administration in a report, are social gatherings where rising economic affluence makes people indulge in ostentatious behavior. Also, celebrations of a plethora of festivals in India, coupled with lavish weddings, inevitably lead to humungous food wastage.

However, some sporadic measures have been taken to curb food wastage and spoilage of grains. Under the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee (PEG) Scheme, covered storage facilities will be provided to farmers store the grains. Help of the private sector is also being sought.

Warehouses constructed under this scheme will be hired by the Food Corporation of India, which will provide return on investment to the private businesses. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also stepped in for help; a modern warehouse with storage capacity to store 50,000 tonnes has also been constructed and will be operated by a private company.

Be that as it may, analysts recommend more sustainable measures to plug the supply leakage and deterrents to wastage of food at festivals and weddings.

Out-of-the-box crop production methods also need to be pushed along with diversifying farmers’ grain basket. To grow 1 kg of rice, over 2,500 liters of water is needed. But millet can get by with only five to 10 liters. Campaigns to consume indigenous and fresh produce – rather than imported produce (an increasing trend in Indian homes and restaurants) -- would support local farmers as well as whittle down food miles, say experts.

Khalid Abu Bakar should step down as IGP if he is not prepared to uphold the law in the Seremban child abduction case and enforce High Court order giving custody to the mother

Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should step down as Inspector-General of Police if he is not prepared to uphold the law in the Seremban child abduction case and enforce the High Court order giving custody to the mother.

The failure and refusal of the Inspector-General of Police to uphold the law and to ignore the Seremban child abduction case is the height of irresponsibility for the top policeman in the country, despite the fact that a police report has been lodged by the mother S Deepa that her son was snatched by her estranged Muslim convert husband although she had won a custody through the civil court.

It is reported that her husband Izwan Abdullah has also obtained a similar order from the Syariah Court.

I agree with the former de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that the IGP was mistaken in thinking syariah law allowed a Muslim convert to abduct his child after losing custody to the mother and that the father was clearly wrong to have taken his son without his estranged wife’s permission as the High Court has given her custody of their two children.

On Monday, the Seremban High Court granted S. Deepa full custody of her two children ― a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son ― as her marriage to N. Viran in 2004 was a civil union and did not come under Shariah law.
Justice Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof also permitted her to divorce Viran who converted to Islam in 2012, and had taken the Muslim name of Izwan Abdullah.

The IGP should remember his sworn oath to uphold the law and the Constitution and should take immediate action to ensure that the “abducted” son is immediately returned to her mother who has lawful custody under following their civil union.

(Media Conference Statement2 in Batu Pahat on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 11.30 am)

MH370 and the black box of the mind

Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen on the flight recorder as a potent image of our helpless relationship to the world and to ourselves

By Josh Cohen, The Guardian,

Occasionally, perhaps when you feel most inured to the traumatic images that assail us daily on the TV screen or in the papers, you see something that tears you out of your glassy indifference. That, at least, was the effect on me of the pictures of the families of the flight MH370 passengers, eyes knitted in prayer, mouths flung open in rage.

Imagine howling. The phrase, spoken by Claudio in Measure for Measure, came to mind as my eyes fell on their faces and shut tightly, as though reflexively shamed by the indecency of looking at them. But why, when we stare with such casual composure at all manner of grief and suffering, should these images induce such particular and intense aversion?

"Imagine howling": the phrase is the culmination of Claudio's febrile vision of death, with its "fiery floods" and "thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice". But the speech is describing less his impending death, than the current torment of trying, and not being able to imagine it: "Ay, but to die, and go we know not where." In other words, it is the living who suffer the torments of death, the irremediable ignorance of not knowing where we will be going.

It is this ignorance that makes the plight of the MH370 families so unbearable to contemplate. The confirmed knowledge that a loved one is dead enables the bereaved to begin what Freud called the work of mourning: the slow and painful acknowledgment that the person lost has been removed irrevocably from our world. We cannot know where they have gone, but we can at least know they are not here and that they won't be coming back.

The families of the Malaysian Airlines flight have, at time of writing, no such grim consolation. Until wreckage is found, their relatives seem suspended between life and death, even long after the last scrap of hope has been abandoned. Claudio's vision seems to describe more the plight of the families than of the passengers. Hence the slogan emblazoned on the banners carried in protest to Kuala Lumpur by the relatives of the Chinese passengers: "You must return the relatives of MH370, no strings attached." We can bear even the worst knowledge, the banner seems to imply, but we cannot bear what Claudio calls "worse than worst".

No wonder then that in the midst of this terrifying uncertainty, the families' and the world's attention comes to be focused on the whereabouts of the so‑called "black box" containing the cockpit voice and flight-data recorders.

As is well known, the black box is, in fact, bright orange. But here symbolism trumps fact. The box is black whatever colour it happens to be, because it is a repository of obscure mysteries, as well as of their solution. The knowledge it contains is so desperately sought, not because it can return the lost passengers, but because it can rescue them and their families from the horror of we know not where, from the unrelieved darkness of nowhere.

In a brilliant and little-known essay of 1913, "The Theme of the Three Caskets", Freud shows just how venerable the symbolism of the black box is, finding some version of it running through the history of folk and fairytales. It is also a recurring motif in (who else?) Shakespeare. Bassanio opens the lead casket that wins Portia's heart. Lear calls on his third daughter to speak only to be told "Nothing" – Cordelia is another kind of leaden box, refusing the treacherous "golden" eloquence of her sisters. The black box, Freud suggests, is a container of the opaque, silent mysteries of love and death, of the enigmas of life itself. It represents both our helplessness in the face of forces beyond our understanding, and our desperate wish to bring them under our control and alleviate the pain of not knowing. In this sense, it is an eloquent emblem of our time, of the enforced ignorance that is our condition.

Perhaps this claim seems counterintuitive or just downright wrong in an age characterised by the ceaseless progress of scientific and technical knowledge. And yet ignorance is in so many ways a corollary of this accumulating knowledge. Our increasingly intricate understanding of the infinitesimal neural networks that form the brain, for example, far from bringing our inner lives under our command, shows us how very little we can do so. "The conscious you," writes neuroscientist David Eagleman in his tellingly titled Incognito, "the you that flickers to life when you wake up in the morning – is the smallest bit of what's transpiring in your brain."

The conscious ego, Freud suggested a century before Eagleman, is only a tiny pocket of coherence in the psyche, helplessly buffeted by the conflicting demands of the voracious id and the unforgiving superego.

These images of the conscious self's ignorance of what is happening below its surface mirrors the pervasive sense of dispossession so many of us feel as we are carried along the unnavigable networks of contemporary life. Our economic security is mortgaged to financial institutions and instruments whose complexity overwhelms our attempts to understand them, and which are liable, as recent years have so explosively shown, to turn us into hapless victims of their unravelling. Our private data disappears into virtual networks, to be sold and bought by corporate and state agencies without our knowledge or consent. The more inexorably science and technology advance, the more the self seems to regress to its original, infantile state of helpless incomprehension.

The black box is a potently concentrated image of this helpless relationship to the world and to ourselves. We are at the mercy of what it says and does, yet we have almost no understanding of its internal workings, and no means of influencing or modifying it.

It may be that our culture of surveillance – by which I mean not only the persecutory monitoring of the totalitarian state envisioned by Orwell, but the more tacitly imposed, pseudo-benign mutual monitoring of social media culture, as well as tabloid media intrusion – can only be understood in relation to this feeling of helplessness.

For the likes of Paul McMullan, the tabloid journalist who told the Leveson inquiry that "privacy is for paedos", every closed room, and every life lived inside it, is an invitation to break into them with a telephoto lens or a hacking device. And perhaps the willing surrender of our own private lives to the eyes of Facebook "friends", Twitter followers and webcams can be read as a more tacit protest against the black boxes of the self and the world, a fantasy of making ourselves and everyone around us fully transparent. "SECRETS ARE LIES / SHARING IS CARING / PRIVACY IS THEFT" run the slogans of the corporate behemoth imagined in Dave Eggers's recent satirical novel, The Circle. Flood the world with light, and the darkness will be magically eliminated.

The suffering of the MH370 families reminds us of the very real terrors ignorance can induce in us. And yet if the darkness of the self induces feelings of helplessness and dispossession, psychoanalysis reminds us that it is also the basis of our creativity. Without the black box of the unconscious, we would have nothing – neither terrors nor pleasures – to imagine.

Attorney-General, public servants can be sued, High Court rules

he Star
BY M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: Absolute immunity for public servants has no place in a progressive democratic society, the High Court here ruled Friday.

Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera said this in dismissing an application by the public prosecutor and 11 others to strike out a civil suit filed by former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Ramli Yusuff against them and another similar application over a suit by lawyer Rosli Dahlan against the Attorney-General and 10 others.

The defence team for Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and two deputy public prosecutors had submitted that the claim against them could not be sustained as they enjoyed absolute immunity from prosecution.

"I am afraid that the notion of absolute immunity for a public servant, even if mala fide or abuse of power in the exercise of their prosecutorial power is alleged in the pleadings, is anathema to the modern day notions of accountability," he said.

JC Vazeer Alam said he agreed that the deliberate abuse of power by a person holding public office was wrongful and referred to as misfeasance in public office.

"Such a tortious (wrongful) act can arise when an officer, actuated by malice, for example, by personal spite or a desire to injure for improper reasons, abuses his power.

"This is in keeping with developments in modern jurisprudence that absolute immunity for public servants has no place in a progressive democratic society," he said.

He said the court was only concerned with whether facts were included in the claim and if it would have to go to trial for the plaintiff to establish his case.

"Even judicial immunity granted to judges or persons acting in a judicial capacity under Section 14 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 is not absolute and is subject to the requirement of good faith in the exercise of their judicial powers," he said.

Therefore, he said he was unable to accept defendants' contention that the claim against three of them was unsustainable by reason of immunity.

He also ruled that although the acts allegedly attributed to some of the defendants were committed in their capacity as officers of the then Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was the proper party to be brought in as a defendant in the civil dispute.

"I find that by virtue of Section 74 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, any act done or action taken by the ACA or an officer of the ACA shall be deemed to have been continued by the MACC (as its successor)," he said.

He also held that action would have to be brought in against the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and not the Royal Malaysian Police, (PDRM) named as a defendant in both suits, as it is not a legal entity. He allowed for proper amendment in the claim.

JC Vazeer Alam set June 18 for case management.

In the RM128.5mil suit filed on Nov 1 last year, Ramli is suing Abdul Gani, former IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan and 10 others for wrongfully charging him.

In his statement of claim, Ramli said he was appointed as the CCID director on May 2, 2006 and was indicted on Nov 1, 2007 on charges under the Penal Code and Anti-Corruption Act 1997.

He is claiming for conspiracy, false and malicious investigation, abuse of power, abuse of prosecutorial discretion, malicious prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct and public misfeasance to injure him.

In the similar suit filed by Rosli against the MACC, the Government and nine others, he is seeking for RM47mil in damages.

Counsel Chetan Jethwani and Parvinder Kaur Cheema acted for Rosli, while Harvinderjit Singh appeared for Ramli. Senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, lawyer Tan Sri Cecil Abraham and counsel Rishwant Singh appeared for the defendants.

MH370: Najib Once Again Thanks Nations For Relentless Effort

KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has once again expressed his gratitude to all countries involved in the search for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that has entered the 36th day today.

The prime minister said the Malaysian government would not forget the assistance and cooperation extended by every individual, organisation, military and country since the search and rescue operation began after the jetliner was reported missing on March 8.

"Once again I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all governments involved in the search for MH370 aircraft.

"The assistance and cooperation of every individual, organisation, military and government involved we will not be forgotten," he said in his Facebook post tonight.

Last Thursday, Najib visited the Australia Royal Air Force (RAAF) base in Pearce, Perth to thank Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and others for their relentless effort to locate MH370 that reportedly ended its flight path in the southern Indian Ocean.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.

The prime minister then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Boeing 777-200 aircraft, that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". The search continues there.