by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Sunday, 4th March 1990:
Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue not ‘fully resolved’ unless Sections 67 and 70 are repealed in April Selangor Assembly
Yesterday, both the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the MCA Deputy President, soon-to-be-restored Datuk Lee Kim Sai, suddenly had a lot to say about the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment.
Until yesterday, both Datuk Dr. Ling and soon-to-be-restored Datuk Lee Kim Sai, refused to say anything to the reporters about the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment when pressed by reporters as to how the MCA was going to get the Enactment controversy resolved, especially as the farce of the eight Selangor MCA Assemblyman, led by National MCA Youth leader, Datuk Yap Pian Hon, had exposed the utter hypocrisy and impotence of the MCA.
Last week, Yap Pian Hon told a Penang Chinese Town Hall Youth forum in Penang that the Selangor State Executive Council had met and discussed a solution to the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment which deprived non-Muslim parents of their fundamental right of control, custody and guardianship of their children below 18 years, and the freedom to decide on their religion, would be repealed in the next Selangor State Assembly in April.
However, my sources in the Selangor State Government tells me that Yap Pian Hon was telling a lie, as the Selangor State Executive Council had never discussed the subject of the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment after the farce of the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen withdrawing their threatened resignations last December. Clearly, Yap Pian Hon had just invented the story to placate the attack he knew he would face when he appeared before the Penang Chinese Town Hall Youth forum last week.
Gooi Hock Seng has become Ling Liong Sik’s savior!
The Supreme Court decision on the Susie Teoh case on Friday must have been regarded by the MCA President, Deputy President, as well as the MCA Youth National leader, as a salvation for them. This is why Lee Kim Sai said that with the Supreme Court decision on the Susie Teoh case, the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue had been ‘fully resolved’ and Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik said: “Thank God!”
It would have been more appropriate actually for Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik to thank DAP lawyers, DAP MP Gooi Hock Seng and Penang Assemblyman N. Shanmugam who took up the Susie Teoh case and won the Susie Teoh case as a salvation for the MCA, then Gooi Hock Seng has become Liong Sik’s savior!
Malaysians will remember that when in 1984 and 1985, there was a spate of forced conversions of non-Muslim minors below 18 years country, the MCA leadership refused to give their parents any help and support. In fact, in the case of Ng Yee Kuan in Kelantan, the MCA leaders told Ng’s parents that there was nothing the MCA could do, and that the best thing for the parents to do was to forget that they ever had such a daughter.
When the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen gave full support to the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment in July last year, there was nothing Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai or the entire MCA national leadership could do to repeal the offending sections of 67 and 70. Now, they are jumping on the Susie Teoh judgment in the Supreme Court last Friday to say the issue has been “fully resolved”.
MCA Ministers and leaders should be ashamed that they have to depend on two DAP lawyers to bail them out
Firstly, it is clear that Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and the entire MCA leadership are ineffective and impotent, and could not do what two Dap lawyers, DAP Member of Parliament Gooi Hock Seng and Penang State Assemblyman N. Shanmugam, had done – to establish clearly the constitutional rights of all non-Muslim Malaysians parents to decide the religion of their children below 18 years, and that all the incidents throughout the country of non-Muslim minors embracing Islam without parental knowledge or consent, and being removed from their parents and family, is unconstitutional.
If Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and the MCA national leaders are men of honour, dignity and self-respect, they will feel very ashamed that they have to depend on two DAP lawyers to bail them out. They will not be celebrating the DAP victory in the Susie Teoh case in the Supreme Court, but confessing their ineffectiveness and impotence that despite their four Ministers in Cabinet, and two Executive Councillors in the Selangor State Government, they could not do what two DAP lawyers could!
Secondly, Ling Liong Sik, Lee Kim Sai and Yap Pian Hon should not mislead the people into thinking that the Susie Teoh judgment in the Supreme Court has ‘fully resolved’ the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue.
This is a most irresponsible attitude to take when the MCA President and the MCA leadership should know that so long as sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment are not repealed in the next Selangor State Assembly, the problem of non-Muslim minors being converted to Islam without parental knowledge or consent, and being taken away from the parents and their family, will not end.
Can Liong Sik and Kim Sai now find and return 15-year-old Ooi Kim Hooi to her parents?
This is why the latest known case of 15-year-old girl, Ooi Kim Hooi, who has joined the lengthening list of non-Muslim minors converting to Islam without parental knowledge or consent and deserting the parents and family, has not been resolved.
How can Liong Sik, Kim Sai or Yap Pian Hon claim that the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue had been resolved, when the Ooi Kim Hois in the country could not be found and returned to the rightful custody of their parents? Can Liong Sik, Kim Sai and Yap Pian Hon now guarantee that Ooi Kim Hoi would be discovered and returned to her parents?
If Liong Sik, Kim Sai and Pian Hon cannot do so, it is the best example as to why it is most misleading and irresponsible for anyone to claim that with the Susie Teaoh judgment in the Supreme Court, the whole Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue has been “fully resolved”.
So long as the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment is not amended, those involved in the conversion of non-Muslim minors without parental knowledge or consent, can claim that they are not doing anything unlawful – as they can claim that they are acting under the authority of the Enactment. And if this is challenged, then the matter has to be taken to court again for another court decision.
The Susie Teoh case took five long years to be finally decided by the Supreme Court. Although Susie Teoh’s parents have finally won their court battle, they have not won back their daughter.
Parents can win court battles, but cannot win back their daughters if Enactment not amended
Unless the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment is amended, the same situation will recur. Parents can pursue their rights in the courts, but at the end of the day, although they will win the court battle, they have not won back their daughter.
This is why the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue cannot be ‘fully resolved’, unless and until Sections 67 and 70 are repealed.
The MCA cannot evade its responsibility and duty to fully resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue. I call on the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik, to make a public commitment that the MCA will see to it that Sections 67 and 70 are repealed, or suitably amended, in the April meeting of the Selangor State Assembly.
If after the Susie Teoh judgment by the Supreme Court, the MCA national leadership cannot see to it that Sections 67 and 70 of the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment are repealed, then it is not only the eight Selangor State Assemblymen who should be condemned by the people, the entire MCA national leadership should be effectively repudiated and rejected by the people as well.
The DAP has done the MCA national leadership a great help in the Susie Teoh judgment in Supreme Court. Is the MCA national leadership unable to fully complete resolve the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment issue by getting Sections 67 and 70 repealed in next month’s meeting of Selangor Assembly?
DAP gives notice to propose amendments to Sections 67 and 70 of Enactment in next month’s Selangor Assembly
Lee Kim Sai should not try to create distractions by putting the responsibility on the Selangor State Legal Adviser, saying that it was up to him to “technically streamline the enactment”. Is Kim Sai suggesting that if the State Legal Adviser failed to “technically streamline the enactment by repealing Sections 67 and 70”, it is no responsibility of MCA?
Let me tell Kim Sai straight, that it is not the responsibility of the State Legal Adviser to “technically streamline the enactment”, but the responsibility of the MCA, both national and state leadership, to repeal or suitably amend Sections 67 and 70 of the Enactment. If Kim Sai and the MCA does not know how to go about it, the DAP is prepared to give MCA free legal advice.
Furthermore, let me give notice to Liong Sik and Kim Sai that if there is no indication in the next few days that the MCA will guarantee that Sections 67 and 70 of the Enactment would be repealed or suitably amended in the April meeting of the Selangor Assembly, the DAP will proceed to propose such amendments to the Selangor Islamic Administration Law Enactment.