The Cabinet tomorrow must give top priority to end the series of man-made tragedies of religion disrupting families and announce after its meeting a proactive strategy to put an end to such instances which have cast a dark shadow over the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations.
For over forty years, such instances of family disruptions because of religion were virtually unheard of but its increasing incidence is giving Malaysia not only a bad name internationally but stand as an indictment of the failure of nation-building and national integration in plural Malaysia on half-a-century of nationhood.
The two latest instances:
1. A hair saloon operator, Benedict Gopal, 32, married his wife Audrey Christina Samuel, 29, six years ago and have two children Melissa, 5 and Jason 17 months. Both are born Christians.
In April, she left the house after differences with her husband, converted to Islam and took the name Nur Adryana Questina binti Abdullah. The two children remained with the father.
On May 3, 2007, she secured an ex-parte order from the Negri Sembilan Syariah Court directing the Negri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Department (MAINS) and the Police to co-operate to get Benedict Gopal to hand over Melissa and Jason to the mother.
Benedict Gopal was given 14 days to appear before the Negri Sembilan syariah court to set aside its order.
There have been two unsuccessful attempts involving the police to take Melissa and Jason from Benedict Gopal to hand them over to the custody of Nur Adryana Questina.
2. Magendran, 25, lorry-driver, from Klang, Selangor, married Najeera Farvinli binti Mohamed Jalali, 25, through a traditional Hindu ceremony on 15th July 2006 at Kuil Maha Mariamman, Klang and they led a happy married life.
On 28th April 2007, seven Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) male officers raided his house in Klang and detained his wife and forcibly took her away without the presence of any female officer, on the ground that she was a Muslim according to her identity card.
Magendran lodged a police report at the Klang police station on the very same day. The JAIS officers did not serve any detention order when they took Najeera away from their home.
Both Benedict Gopal and Magendran accompanied DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Glugor, Karpal Singh to Parliament this afternoon for a media conference.
Karpal will be applying for a declaration from the civil court to assert Benedict Gopal’s constitutional rights while in the latter case, a habeas corpus application by Magendran to free Najeera from illegal detention by JAIS authorities has been filed.