By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, February 12, 1990:
Call on four MCA Ministers to explain how a 15-year-old girl, Ooi Kim Hooi, could embrace Islam and disappear from her family for 10 weeks without any trace in Malaysia?
Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister, Ghafar Baba, said in Malacca that Malaysians should not fear having their religious rights taken away as the country has enough laws to protect people of all faiths.
The Deputy Prime Minister said this when commenting on the nation-wide campaign by the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism (MCCBCH) rejecting the imposition of Islamic Laws on Non-Muslim Malaysians.
Malaysians have reached a stage where verbal statements and assurances are inadequate, as over the years, particularly in the 1980s, there have been growing Islamisation in all fields of national life. This is why the MCCBCH has found the issue imperative enough to launch such a nation-wide campaign.
In fact, Malaysians not only worry about their religious rights, they also have good reason to worry about their children being taken away from them.
The latest such instance is the 15-year-old Taiping girl, Ooi Kim Hooi, who had disappeared from her family and joined the lengthening list of non-Muslim minors who have converted to Islamn without parental knowledge or consent, resulting in family break-ups and sufferings.
In fact, the question all Malaysians are asking is how in Malaysia, with all the laws and the Police forces, Ooi Kim Hooi could embrace Islam without parental knowledge or consent, and virtually disappear from her family for the past 10 weeks, without a single trace?
MCA Deputy President, Lee Kim Sai, has said that the government should prevent such a Ooi Kim Hooi case from recurring, when what he and other MCA ministers should do , is to ensure that Ooi Kim Hooi is located and returned to her family to effect a family reunion.
In view of the MCA’s role in the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment, the four MCA Ministers should in fact explain how Ooi Kim Hooi could just simply disappear from her family after embracing Islam without parental knowledge or consent, for as long as 10 weeks, despite all the laws of the land and all the forces of law and order in the country.
I hope the MCA Ministers, who had failed to raise the Ooi Kim Hooi issue in last week’s Cabinet, will not forget their duty when the Cabinet meets on Wednesday.