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NEWS:’Panel to have final say’

April 13th, 2007
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then the courts do what? is this some sort of trick to hoodwink nearly 50% of the malaysian population?
 
 

‘Panel to have final say’

KUALA LUMPUR: The special commission for religious-sensitive matters will have the final say, if the Cabinet approves its establishment. 

Minister in the Prime MinisterÂ’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said the proposed commission would focus more on moral obligations in discussing these matters. 

“Such issues should be handled in an extra-legal manner as they are very personal and close to the heart for those involved,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby yesterday. 

He added that the Government would like to see leaders of the different religions in the commission to ensure deliberations were conducted in a fair manner.  

Nazri said the Attorney GeneralÂ’s Chambers was fine-tuning the details on the setting up of the commission, after which the proposal would be submitted to Cabinet for consideration. 

On Wednesday, The Star front-paged a report that the A-GÂ’s Chambers was mulling over the setting up of a special commission to study religious-sensitive cases.  

The latest controversy involves 28-year-old R. Subashini, a Hindu, who is in a legal tussle with her husband who converted to Islam.  

However, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) said an interfaith commission should not usurp the role of the civil courts. 

“Civil courts established under the Federal Constitution must have the last word on religious-sensitive cases,” said president Datuk Chee Peck Kiat.  

At a conference in 2005, he said civil society had proposed the setting up of a Interfaith Commission by statute that was envisaged to be a non-binding, consensus creating body intended to act only through “conciliation, mediation and negotiation” to help parties in dispute to resolve their differences amicably.

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Nazri’s statements shocking, says Lim

April 12th, 2007
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let this be a wake-up call for all malaysians. when nearly 40% of the population can be brushed aside and ministers can says whatever they like, as if they represent all malaysian, this is the outcome.
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Nazri’s statements shocking, says Lim
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17594
B.Suresh Ram KUALA LUMPUR (April 11, 2007): Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang described as “astounding” the statements by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz on the proposed Inter-Faith Commission (IFC). “What was he saying? You mean to tell me if the Malays do not want to participate, the Federal Constitution cannot be upheld?” Lim asked.
Nazri had said in Parliament yesterday the IFC can only be formed with participation from all communities of different faiths and amendments to Article 121(A) of the Constitution.
“He said my arguments were valid but there is no way the Barisan Nasional (BN) government would agree because there is no way to convince and persuade Malays, who constitute the majority of the electorate, to support such a constitutional amendment,” Lim told reporters in Parliament lobby today.
“His arguments are unacceptable … it’s setting a dangerous precedent for the erosion of the constitutional guarantees in the Merdeka Social Contract of Malaysia as a democratic, tolerant, multi-religious and secular nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic state.”
Lim said he had stressed that the amendments of Article 121(1A) of the Constitution in 1988 was to provide to Muslims the constitutional protection for their rights to be adjudicated in Syariah courts without detracting the rights of non-Muslims.
“In the past few years, particularly after the Ô929 Declaration’ of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that Malaysia is an Islamic state, non-Muslims here have seen their religious and constitutional sensitivities and rights adjudicated in civil courts and Syariah courts eroded.
“The time has come for an amendment to the Constitution to make it clear that Article 121(1A) does not derogate the rights of non-Muslim Malaysians which they had enjoyed without challenge before the 1988 Constitutional amendments,” he said.
On corruption, Lim said the time has come for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to summon a special meeting of the Cabinet to exclusively address the worst corruption crisis in the country’s history.
This, he said, was to demonstrate the political will to arrest, prosecute and jail top political government leaders for corruption.
Updated: 08:42PM Wed, 11 Apr 2007

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NEWS:Commission to study religious- sensitive cases

April 11th, 2007
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Commission to study religious- sensitive cases http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/11/nation/17403972&sec=nation
By FLORENCE A. SAMY
KUALA LUMPUR: The Attorney-General’s Chambers is mulling over the setting up of a special commission to study religious-sensitive cases like the Lina Joy matter, said Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said that in his opinion, the commission, if approved, should comprise the heads of various religions.
»In my opinion, the question of conversion should be settled in an ‘extra legal manner,’ especially when children are involved,« – DATUK SERI NAZRI ABDUL AZIZ Aziz. Nazri said the proposal would be submitted to the Cabinet once it was finalised.
“In my opinion, the question of conversion should be settled in an ‘extra legal manner,’ especially when children are involved,” he said.
Replying to Karpal Singh’s (DAP – Bukit Gelugor) query on why a decision had yet to be reached in the Lina Joy case, Nazri said:
“The decision is difficult to make as it is very sensitive and we have to consider the consequences. Even if it is made in the right decree, the acceptance may be difficult,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat when winding up the debate on the motion of thanks on the royal address.
Expressing hope that such a commission would find a resolution to sensitive cases, Nazri noted that the setting up of a Federal Constitutional Court was not the answer to such cases.
“Even with the Federal Constitutional Court, the judge will be of a certain faith and if he makes a decision favouring that faith, he may be labelled biased,” he said.
The Government, Nazri said, had ordered the A-G’s Chambers to study in detail issues pertaining to cases such as that of M. Moorthy and A. Rayappan, including gathering input from all sides.
“It cannot be denied that such cases have raised a lot of sensitive questions that need a deeper understanding between the races if they are to be solved permanently,” he said.
Although the Moorthy and Rayappan cases involved the conversion of a non-Muslim to Muslim, Article 121 (A) will not be amended. Nazri also said the civil court cannot interfere on matters under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court.
He also said Syariah laws would not be forced upon non-Muslims and the A-G’s Chamber’s had been ordered to study matters arising from divorce case of a non-Muslim couple when one party converted to Islam.
The family of A. Rayappan, 71, were involved in a legal tussle with the Selangor Islamic Religious Council (Mais) on the right to claim his body following his death on Nov 29, last year.
The former van driver converted to Islam in 1990 but left the religion and returned to Catholicism in 1999. Mais eventually withdrew its claims to the body and stated that evidence pointed to Rayappan being a non-Muslim.
He was finally cremated according to Christian rites on Dec 8.
A controversy was triggered following the death of Mount Everest climber Sjn M. Moorthy alias Muhammad Abdullah on Dec 20, 2005.
His widow, S. Kaliammal, and the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council were embroiled in a legal tussle over the right to bury him when it was discovered that he had converted to Islam the previous year.
His widow, however, sought a declaration in the civil court that Moorthy lived a Hindu life.
On Dec 28, 2005, the High Court ruled that it would not disturb the declaration that Moorthy was a Muslim because the latter was under the purview of the Syariah Court system and he was eventually buried according to Muslim rites.
Lina Joy, born a Muslim, is claiming that she had converted to Christianity and is seeking to restate her religious status in her MyKad. A court decision is pending.

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Subashini files appeal to Federal Court (The Sun version)

April 3rd, 2007
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Subashini files appeal to Federal Court

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17482


PUTRAJAYA (April 2, 2007): A Hindu housewife, who was told to go to the Syariah Court to fight for her matrimonial rights, wants the Federal Court to decide whether the High Court has exclusive jurisdiction to grant a civil divorce to a couple, where one spouse has converted to Islam.

This was one of the nine questions of law contained in R.SubashiniÂ’s application for leave for the Federal Court to determine.

Subashini had filed for leave from the Federal Court to appeal against the Appellate CourtÂ’s 2-1 majority decision on March 13, telling her to battle out her divorce and custody claims in the Syariah Court.

On that day, the Court of Appeal rejected the former secretaryÂ’s appeal against a High Court decision last Sept 25, setting aside the exparte injunction order granted to her to restrain T.Saravanan, 31, from commencing proceedings in the Syariah Court to dissolve their marriage and to convert their second son.

The 28-year-old woman filed the leave application together with a certificate of urgency through law firm Kanesalingam and Co. last Friday (March 30, 2007).

It will be the end of the road for Subashini if she fails to get leave from the Federal Court to appeal. If that happens, the Court of Appeal decision would be final, reports Bernama today.

Last Friday, Subashini obtained a temporary injunction from the Court of Appeal preventing Saravanan from initiating or continuing with any proceedings in the Syariah Court or converting their younger son pending the hearing of her leave application.

Among the other questions proposed for the Federal CourtÂ’s determination:

  • whether it is an abuse of process for a spouse in a civil marriage to unilaterally convert the religion of a minor child without the consent of the other parent; and
  • whether Article 121 (1A) of the Federal Constitution prevents the High Court from granting interim injunctions, where the abuse of process is effected at the syariah court through unconstitutional and jurisdictionally incompetent filing of proceedings in the syariah courts and unilateral conversion of a minor child from a civil marriage, by the converted spouse.

Article 121 (1A) states that the civil courts do not have jurisdiction over matters within the jurisdiction of the syariah courts which, constitutionally, only has jurisdiction over Muslims.

The couple, who have yet to finalise their divorce, have two children, Dharvin Joshua, three, and one-year-old Sharvind.

Saravanan, whose Muslim name is Muhammad Shafi Abdullah, had claimed that the elder child had converted to Islam with him in May last year.

In seeking an early hearing, Subashini gave the following grounds: 

  • the issues raised in the leave application pertained to the imposition of Islamic law on non-Muslim citizens, which fundamentally affects the lives of the entire non-Muslim community;
  • the leave application raised issues regarding the relationship between the Civil High Courts and Syariah Courts established by various state legislatures which will have a significant impact on the proper functioning of the judicial arm of the government and the maintenance of the rule of law in Malaysia

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calling all malaysian to pray this week!!! – MCCBCHST organised week-long prayer for non-muslims

April 3rd, 2007
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Pls spread this news – can refer to Sun paper (2/4 and 3/4).

finally, MCCBCHST is doing something about this. let’s all join in and support them. many of us argue on the forums abt the injustice happening to Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Taosists, Sikhs, etc. Let’s show our support and join in the prayer sessions. fill up the churches, temples, gurdwaras.

It will be great if MCCBCHST can come out with arm bands or car stickers to support this event.

all this happening due to the cowardly act of the husband (saravanan) who misuse islam. his action just spoil the religion’s name. hopefully the rest of the muslims realise this. ms subashini will be better off without him.

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Religious Council: Prayers not move to undermine Islam, Muslims
Subashini files appeal to Federal Court
Maria J.Dass

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17482

PETALING JAYA (April 2, 2007): The initiative by non-Muslim groups to hold prayers for and read out letters nationwide in support of justice, fairness and respect for their constitutional rights is not meant to undermine Islam or Muslims, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) said.

Instead, the efforts are to create awareness among non-Muslims regarding recent court judgments, and help them understand the implications of conversion to Islam.

Council president Datuk Chee Peck Kiat said the initiatives had also received support from Muslims, including from Sisters in Islam (SIS) and Umno MP Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, noting that they had spoken up on the injustices caused by the lack of religious freedom, and the recent civil court decision to direct non-Muslims to the syariah court.

“We urge all fair minded Malaysians, irrespective of their religion, to voice their grievances against this injustice through proper and peaceful channels, and to do all that is possible, and pray that justice and freedom of religion be restored,” he said today.

He was speaking in a press conference to launch a series of special prayers following the March 13 Court of Appeal judement directing R. Subashini, a Hindu, to seek recourse through the syariah court.

The court, in a majority decision, had also dismissed SubashiniÂ’s appeal to stop her Muslim-convert husband, Muhammad Shafi Saravanan Abdullah, from going to the syariah court to dissolve their civil marriage, seek custody of their children and unilaterally convert their young child.

However last Friday (March 30), the same bench granted Subashini an interim injunction preventing her husband from proceeding with his case in the syariah court pending the disposal of her application to the Federal court.

“The fact that the wife has been granted temporary respite by the court does not detract from the seriousness of the original decision,” Chee said.

In a statement today, SIS said the Muslim group believed in justice and the non-discrimination of people of other faiths as enshrined in Islam.

“We support any initiative that affirms the supremacy of the Constitution that has been agreed by all ethnic groups in Malaysia,” SIS said.

The prayer sessions by MCCBCHST over this week will coincide with the Christian Holy Week, the Hindu and Tamil New Year, and Cheng Beng (ChineseÂ’s All Souls Day).

Christian Federation of Malaysia executive secretary Rev. Dr Hermen Shastri said: “We will pray that the government will be moved by moral conscience to rectify the situation, by upholding laws in the Constitution.”

The Buddhist community will also hold prayer sessions over the next three months during the full moon.

“Our devotees have to understand these issues, that once you enter (convert to Islam), it is very difficult to leave,” Malaysian Buddhist Association adviser Ng Hong Pau said.

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