MM Online - Home minister says no plan to amend law to ban unilateral child conversions (extracts)
KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The government has no plans to add Clause 88A to the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Clause 88A was proposed by Barisan Nasional (BN) when it was in power to effectively prohibit any religious conversion of minors by one parent when he or she converts to Islam, but was never implemented due to strong public objections.
“Based on the Federal Court and the High Court's decision in 2018, this ministry is aware of the decision to cancel the unilateral conversion for five individuals under 18 years of age,” Muhyiddin said in response to Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said who raised the issue in the lower House of Parliament.
The home minister said the decision not to proceed was based on a conclusion reached by the Attorney General's Chambers after reconsidering the proposed Clause 88A, which is that it is the judiciary’s role to interpret current laws.
“They came to the conclusion that the courts as a judicial body has the freedom to interpret any legal provisions and the decision of the Federal Court is binding to the lower courts,” Muhyiddin said.
When it is spelt out clearly in the Constitution, there can be no further argument about the matter. We should NOT rely too much on the Judiciary, which we know as in the Adorna case, could be as crooked as the letter 'Z'.
Why is there Pakatan's reluctance to put Clause 88A into black and white?
After all, Clause 88A was proposed by the former BN government to effectively prohibit any religious conversion of minors by one parent when he or she converts to Islam.
Is Pakatan worried about objections from ultra conservative forces?
But then wouldn't such a fear made Pakatan far far worse than BN?
