by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary – General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Friday, November 29, 1991:
Liong Sik should explain why he has allowed a repetition Of the scandal of the eight Selangor MCA Assemblymen Supporting Islamic laws adverse to the rights and Interests of non – Muslims in the Pahang State Assembly
The Pahang State Assembly, with the full support of the MCA State Exco members and Assemblymen, yesterday passed the Pahang Islamic Law Administration Enactment which violates the constitutional right of freedom of religion of non – Muslim Malaysians.
Under the new enactment passed by the Pahang State Assembly yesterday, a person who converts to Islam has the right to compel his children below 18 years to also convert to Islam.
The DAP is shocked that the MCA, which has been pretending to be the great opponents of Islamisation in the past year, could support such a Pahang Islamic Law Administration Enactment which is highly detrimental to the rights and interests of non – Muslim Malaysians.
Liong Sik and the MCA leadership should explain to the people how they could allow a repetition of the scandal of the eight MCA Selangor Assemblymen supporting the Selangor Islamic Law Administration Enactment which is highly detrimental to non – Muslim rights in the Pahang Assembly yesterday!
Liong Sik and the MCA leaders cannot be unaware of the great unhappiness and tragedies caused to families when one of the parents convert to Islam – often without the knowledge of the spouse and children, leading to ‘fight’ over corpses during funerals.
The MCA leadership had never provided help, support or even sympathy in such cases, and now in the Pahang Islamic Law Administration Enactment, the MCA leaders have further undermined the rights of non – Muslims.
In giving the parent who has converted to Islam the right to compel children below 18 years to also convert to Islam is to violate the rights of the other parent who have not converted to Islam.
From the latest Pahang Islamic Law Administration Enactment, it is clear that it is the MCA which is most responsible for undermining the rights and the interests of non – Muslims in Malaysia, in their support of laws which are not only unconstitutional but against the founding principle of Malaysia as a secular state.