‘Break your silence on Indira Gandhi’s case, Najib’

The Prime Minister must show his political courage and will in resolving inter-faith custody issues

GEORGE TOWN: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should break his silence and make a firm and uncompromising Cabinet decision on inter-faith custody issues.

Ipoh Barat MP and DAP national vice-chairman M Kulasegaran said Najib must inform the public if his Cabinet was committed to enforcing its 2009 decision banning unilateral conversion of minors.

He said if so, Najib must publicly inform when the law would be amended in Parliament to conform with and enforce the executive ban.

But, he said if the Cabinet had abandoned the 2009 decision, the Prime Minister must explain to the people the reasons for the U-turn and how the government would resolve interfaith custody matters.

Kulasegaran is the legal counsel for M Indira Gandhi, who is involved in a bitter legal battle with her Muslim convert ex-husband Ridzuan Abdullah, previously known as K Patmanathan, over the custody of their youngest six-year-old daughter, Prasana Diksa.

“The Prime Minister must show his political courage and will in Indira Gandhi’s case and interfaith custody matters,” Kulasegaran said in a statement here today.

He pointed out that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Jamil Khir Baharom, had said in a written reply to him on June 17 in Parliament that the government had no intention of amending the law in compliance with the Cabinet ban.

Jamil Khir quoted the case of Shamala Sathiyaseelan vs Dr Jeyaganesh C Mogarajah L Anor (2004) and said that based on the decision, the consent of one parent is sufficient in deciding a minor’s religion as the word parent in Article 12 (4) of the Federal Constitution is parent or guardian, and not parents or guardians that means either father or mother or guardian.

The Prime Minister has yet to break his silence on Jamil Khir’s reply.

In April 2009, Ridzuan took away Prasana, then 11 months old, and converted her and her two siblings, Tevi Darsiny, then 12, and Karan Dinish, then 11, to Islam without Indira Gandhi’s knowledge.

The High Court later granted Indira Gandhi full custody of all three children.

On May 30, Ipoh High Court judge Lee Swee Seng issued a warrant of arrest against Ridzuan for contempt after he repeatedly failed to return Prasana.

“Indira Gandhi’s agony and trauma are not yet over after five years of pain and suffering, even after having obtained a court order,” said Kulasegaran.

Bloody cow's head thrown in front of Rayer’s home

 

VIDEO | 0:34sec

A bloody cow's head was found in front of DAP’s Seri Delima assemblyperson RSN Rayer’s house in Jalan Tingkat Tembaga, Island Park this morning.

Rayer (right) said his wife discovered the head, which is completely skinned, when she was about to send their daughter to school this morning at about 7am.

“My wife alerted me at about that time and I went down and saw it was at my front gate,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

“We don't know who did it and why. We do not want to speculate,” he added.

“However, the owner of the shop in front of my house saw the incident, and said a man came by in his motorcycle and threw it there,” he said.

By 9am, police have cordoned off Rayer's semi-detached house and carted away the cow's head for investigation.

Rayer said the police also recorded a statement from him and took a copy of the CCTV footage.

"The recording showed that the unknown man came at 5.58am, he wore a helmet and (his face) was fully covered. After he did the act, he danced around," Rayer added, showing reporters a video clip of the CCTV.

"It would be hard to identify him," he lamented.

"My wife and I were shocked to see the cow's head. We feel it is a threat and an insult to our family," he stressed.

Guan Eng: Insult to all

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who arrived on the scene at 9.15am said he was appalled at the incident.

"The perpetrator insulted the whole community, not just to Rayer. It is a rude act and a threat to national security," he added.

Lim recalled that pro-Umno groups had done a similar act in front of the Selangor secretariat office in Shah Alam in 2009.

"I am not accusing pro-Umno groups of this incident but they had done something similar in 2009, which insulted the Hindu community," Lim said.

Lim also said that Perkasa leader Zulkifli Noordin's recent threat of the recurrence of May 13 and Prime Minister Najib Razak's remarks asking Umno to be like ISIL militants (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) can lead to acts of “disharmony”.

"If Najib had denied supporting ISIL militants, he must withdraw his remarks immediately," Lim said.

"The police must act against Zulkifli for his May 13 remarks if peace is to be restored or else it would appear as if it is okay to threaten minority groups," he added.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported saying this was the merely the "price" Rayer is paying for being "foul-mouthed", and that the latter should realise his “celaka Umno” had "angered the public".

“As a politician, I sympathise with him. But that is the price he has to pay for being foul-mouthed,” the online news site The Rakyat Post quoted him saying today.

'Celaka' remark

Rayer riled pro-Umno supporters when he uttered the words “Umno celaka” inside the Penang legislative assembly on May 20.

Pro-Umno supporters held a noisy rally outside the state assembly the next day, while 16 people forcefully barged into the hall looking for Rayer.

They demanded that Rayer apologise and withdraw his “celaka” remarks.

Rayer was arrested for his remark last week but his charge under Section 4(1)(b) of the 1948 Sedition Act at the Sessions court was postponed indefinitely, on an order from the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

The 15 intruders (one still at large) were charged in the magistrate’s court with trespassing.

Meanwhile northeast district police chief assistant commissioner Mior Farid Alatrash said the incident will be probed under Section 298A of the Penal Code.

"The section deals with causing disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing, the maintenance of harmony or unity on grounds of religion," he told the media.

Should the far right only decide the Malay/Muslim community’s agenda?

Who speaks for the Malay/Muslim community? Political parties such as Umno, PAS and PKR? Or the likes of Datuk Ibrahim Ali, Datuk Zulkifli Noordin and the Isma leadership?

Who else?

Fact is, why is the Malay/Muslim community allowing the likes of Ibrahim Ali, Zul Noordin and the Isma fellows dictate the agenda for the country's most dominant demography?

These people are poor advertisements or poster boys for Islam and the supposed tolerance of the Malays – nature's finest gentlemen, according to the British.

There was a time when men like Datuk Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, former Bank Negara governor Tun Mohd Ismail Ali were the ones who showed the finer side of the Malays.

But now, we have the few who are prone to rash and incendiary statements that want to provoke and incite rather than lead and influence the community to a better and peaceful future.

Why are the rest of the Malays quiet? Do they agree with this few or have given up to set things right? Do they want these few to represent them just as some extremists appear to dominate the narrative in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and other Muslim nations?

It is about time other voices come to the fore and show the finer nature of the community. Too much is at stake for them to keep quiet and let the loud and swaggering far right take centre stage.

We are talking here about the very future of Malaysia, the future of multiracial Malaysia and the future of multi-religious Malaysia.

Do we want to see a Malaysia that is less what it set out to be in 1963 and more a country of extremes and dominated by the few with a blinkered vision. Is this the Bangsa Malaysia that was envisioned in "The Way Forward" speech of 1991?

The reality is that we are all Malaysians and the majority are the Malays. They have to step up and take charge with their fellow Malaysians to take Malaysia forward as a country for all.

Educated Malays cannot trust the country's politicians or Umno to articulate their views or hold the line against extremism. They have to do it themselves and they have to do it right from today.

Malaysia is too precious to be left to the extremists who appear to want to instil their version of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant. It is time we all stand up and let the far right know that they are the fringe and we are the centre.

That Malaysia is a country for all, in peace and harmony. Not for the few who spook and bully people to follow their narrow and racist path.

Another cow-head incident, another minister shows his lack of class

Blame Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi if you find Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi offensive, classless and an absolute duffer.

The former Umno Youth chief was consigned to political oblivion after resigning from the post, and was even detained under the Internal Security Act, after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from the government in September 1998.

To those who have forgotten the illustrious history of Zahid, he was supposed to launch the attack against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, accusing the then PM of cronyism and nepotism.

The attack did not take off and Dr Mahathir instead laid bare the hypocrisy of Zahid, showing how he had benefited from cronyism and how he had amassed millions of ringgit.

Zahid (pic) was politically dead until Abdullah brought him back into Umno and the government when he replaced Dr Mahathir as PM.

The rest as they say is history. Sadly. Zahid rose up the ranks and today is the home minister. What an irony? The man who allegedly beat the boyfriend of his daughter to pulp is now in charge of law and order.

He speaks like a thug; he can't differentiate when he should speak like an Umno man or the home minister, and is a daily reminder that Najib's XXL cabinet is full of incompetent individuals.

Today, instead of being disgusted and disturbed by the act of throwing a cow’s head in the compound of R.S.N. Rayer's home in Penang, he chastised the DAP man for having a loud mouth and said that he brought on the attack because he called Umno "celaka" in the state assembly recently.

Remember, this is the home minister speaking. It seems that he is endorsing the actions of those behind the cow-head incident.

He is speaking like another former home minister from Umno, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who sympathised with his party-men after they paraded around an area in Shah Alam with a cow’s head in 2009.

Do you think that any individual or group is going to be discouraged from repeating this offensive action against other Hindus? Is it any wonder that in recent months, minority groups have had animal carcasses thrown into places of worship and other places?

There is little downside to these provocative actions for them. Get caught? When was the last time the police arrested anyone worth arresting?

It is easy to just say that this is about Rayer and that other Malaysians should not get too excited about what Zahid said. Too easy in fact.

Zahid's flippant comment once again demonstrates that many in the government can't tell right from wrong, and don't understand a fundamental fact of governing: that those in position of leadership must be colour-blind and impartial in carrying out their duties.

Zahid has shown that he is incapable of being an honest broker. He is an Umno man, nothing more. He is just an offensive and classless individual.

Just another gift handed down to Malaysia by Abdullah Badawi, much like the toothless Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the discredited judiciary.

Kula to file contempt proceedings against IGP

 

Lawyer M Kulasegaran said he will proceed to file a case to cite inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar for contempt of court over a child custody case.

This is for failing to carry out several orders from the Ipoh High Court in relation to the interfaith custody battle, where the Ipoh Barat MP is the lawyer for the mother M Indira Gandhi.

The court orders include a committal order, an arrest warrant for Indira’s ex-husband K Pathmanathan @ Muhd Ridhuan Abdullah and a recovery order for the child Prasana Diksa.

Speaking at a press conference in Ipoh today with his client, Kulasegan chided the IGP as perhaps the only IGP in the world who would refuse to execute a warrant of arrest, and said Indira’s predicament could easily be solved if the Khalid (above) would just enforce the court orders.

There would be no need for the attorney-general (AG) to intervene either if the orders were enforced, he added.

“Today, after five long years of pain and sufferings and having obtained a court order for the child to be returned to her, Indira’s agony and trauma are not yet over due to the inaction of the IGP, the wrong advice of the prime minister and the wrong action of the AG," he said.

"The IGP Khalid has refused to enforce the committal order, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has advised that the case be brought to the Federal Court, while the attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail wants to apply to intervene in both the civil and syariah courts and suspend their orders on the police,” he said in a statement today.

In the Indira’s case and a similar interfaith custody dispute in Seremban, the civil courts have awarded mothers the custody of the children overruling previous syariah court rulings that favoured the Muslim convert fathers.

The civil courts in both cases have also issued recovery orders for the children, which the police have refused to execute.

Blaming the purportedly conflicting court orders from the judicial  systems, Khalid said the police are caught in a dilemma over which court’s order to enforce.

“So we will not be enforcing either of the court orders. That is our stand,” he said.

This is despite the Ipoh court specifically ruling that its supercedes the syariah court's.

What of cabinet decision, Najib?

Meanwhile, Kula urged Najib to speak up on whether the cabinet still stands by its April 2009 decision on such custody disputes.

“Najib cannot keep silent on this issue. He must inform the public if his cabinet is still committed to the 2009 cabinet decision on unilateral conversions of minors and if so, when will the necessary law changes be tabled in Parliament.

“If his cabinet has abandoned the 2009 decision, the prime minister must explain to the people the reasons for the U-turn and how the government is going to resolve interfaith custody matters,” he said.

Citing the conflicting court orders from the judicial  systems, Khalid said the police are caught in   a dilemma over which court’s order to enforce.

“So we will not be enforcing either of the court orders. That is our stand,” he said.

In 2009, the cabinet decided in response to Indira’s plight that unilateral conversion of minors should be not be allowed, and laws will be changed to reflect that.

To date, the necessary amendments have yet to be made and the government has dragged its feet over the matter.

Bar Council president Christopher Leong yesterday mused that the amendments may have been "quietly forgotten".