Kuala Lumpur: A Malaysian ethnic minority association has called for changing the word 'parent' in the country's Federal Constitution to 'parents' so that both the mother and father are involved in the process of registering a minor child as a Muslim convert.
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the nation's largest ethnic Chinese minority political party's political education bureau chief Gan Ping Sieu said in a statement that this meant that the consent and knowledge of both parents would be required if either of the spouse decide to register their minor children as a Muslim convert.
The article now reads: "The religion of a person under the age of 18 years shall be decided by his parent or guardian."
"The amendment is feasible to prevent the issue of unilateral conversion from exploding into a political issue or an unnecessary emotional court battle," Sieu said, adding that any such situation would only polarise the various religious groups in the country.
Gan said that while the party welcomed the commitment by the Attorney-General's Chambers to amend the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act as a remedy to this long-standing issue of unilateral conversion of minor children by a spouse embracing Islam, there was "confusion on the authoritative text."
"There is confusion on the authoritative text as to when the term parents (plural) of the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Constitution was mysteriously changed to read parent
(singular)," Gan said.
To avoid further complication and confusion, and to implement the Cabinet's decision on conversion, the MCA said an article in the Constitution should be amended with the word 'parents'.
Gan said that if both parents failed to agree on the children's faith, the religion at the time of birth or marriage should remain.
"When the minors reach the age of 18 years, then the children can determine for themselves the religion they wish to profess," he added.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 14:47