When Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced “Performance Now” as one of the three mottos of his government’s overarching philosophy, he would have realized that it would be put to a test early in his premiership.
Najib should have been realistic enough to know that he would not enjoy the luxury of a political honeymoon of “The First 100 Days”, but it is unlikely that he expected it to come under a major test immediately after his first three weeks as Prime Minister and in the form of a year-old baby girl Prasana Diksa.
In Ipoh, kindergarten teacher M. Indira Ghandi’s vigil for the return of her daughter, Prasana Diksa, who is still being breastfed, is coming to 48 hours since the Ipoh High Court judgment on Friday granting her interim custody of her three children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish 11 and Prasana Diksa; a restraining order against her husband K. Pathmanathan, who has assumed the name Mohd Redzuan Abdullah after conversion to Islam, until full custody hearing on May 12; ordered the husband to surrender Prasana to the mother and a mandamus to the police to assist Indira in the matter.
Prasana was forcibly taken away from Indira last month by her husband, who forcibly converted the three children to Islam without her knowledge or consent.
Yesterday, I had asked the Ipoh police officers how long more will Indira have to wait before the police could discover the baby’s whereabouts and return her to the mother.
I told them that it would reflect very poorly on the capabilities and performance of the Ipoh police if they could not find the baby girl and return her immediately to her mother, as if the baby has just disappeared!
After a five-year-long procrastination from the Everest mountaineer Moorthy case, the Cabinet has finally announced a commendable solution for controversial religious conversions resulting in family breakups and injustices – firstly, that children of divorced parents be brought up in the common religion at the time of marriage when one parent converts to another religion and secondly, that conversion must not be used as a ground to automatically dissolve a marriage or to get custody of children.
However, the Cabinet decision has no meaning for Indira Ghandi, who is still pining for her baby girl Prasana Diksa, who had been forcibly taken away from her for a month.
As a result, Prasana Diksa’s whereabouts has also shaped up to be first major test of Najib’s “Performance Now” motto.
The ministerial committee to deal with Prasana Diksa case headed by Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of KPI for Ministers and Unity, should visit Ipoh to do their utmost to resolve the issue by getting Prasana Diksa returned to her mother without any further delay.
Najib, who visited Indonesia recently, should take serious note of the observation by Indonesian Islamic scholar and former Foreign Minister, Dr. Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab in Malaysia a few days ago that issues of forced conversion of children to Islam are unknown in Indonesia, while in Malaysia, it has been allowed to be an increasingly polarizing factor in race and religious relations – a most unhealthy phenomenon which should not be continued if Najib is serious about another motto of his overarching philosophy, 1Malaysia!
#1 by OrangRojak on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 2:47 pm
I’m glad the courts have done the right thing. Now as long as the police and the father do the right thing, the mother and baby can be reunited, and the politicians can get on with doing their thing.
Would the police be terribly interested in this matter now that the courts have made the necessary orders? I would imagine that a social or health worker could visit the father to ‘request’ the return of the baby and call the police if he resisted, who could eventually arrange for the issue of some sort of warrant? Are the father and baby now ‘missing persons’? I’m not sure on what basis the police can be motivated if the father has not actually committed a crime or refused a court order.
It’s a heart-rending case, but it seems like the law is taking its course, even if it is painfully slow. have the newspapers published photos of the father and daughter to aid in the case?
#2 by lee wee tak_ on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 3:10 pm
impact of Hindraf and voting trend?
#3 by Ardogan on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 3:16 pm
This advice for all Malaysian who visit or make business in United Arab Emirates.
be very very careful
http://www.uaetorture.com
#4 by limkamput on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 3:44 pm
Let MINDRAf settle it.
#5 by ekans on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 4:12 pm
The Ipoh police had been ‘very efficient’ in barricading the Perak State Secretariat building, denying entry to legally elected ADUNs from PR.
But why is it they are not efficient enough to reunite a mother and her baby although there is a legal order from the Ipoh High court?
‘Selective’ law enforcement in action here?
#6 by monsterball on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 5:42 pm
Yes…In Indonesia…with more than 250 million population…there is no such thing as forcing one to be a Muslim.
Indonesians are the immediate relations to Malaysia’s Malays…yet tiny Malaysia seems to try showing Indonesians…..they are the Champions of Islamic faith in the world.
Back to the post….Najib is walking at several welknown vicinities in K.Lumpur to get know Malaysians…so he said…yet this incident is ignored by him.
He can walk as much a he likes…but UMNO can never change from be a racialist party ..love using Islam to fool his own kind.
Imagine…a non Muslim father snatched a daughter and convert her to other faiths…then she how Najib and UMNO work.
#7 by k1980 on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 5:52 pm
Enough is enough. Indira Ghandi must now call upon her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Sarwant Singh, to track down Patmanathan and take back her baby.
#8 by monsterball on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 6:09 pm
Who are those two Singhs?
#9 by chengho on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 6:59 pm
Agreed with uncle Monsterball let have assimilation in Malaysia like in Indonesia intermarriange without changing the religion….
#10 by Jajarbink on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 10:53 pm
Actually this UMNo regime does not have the ability to think nor there was a lot of hidden hands messing with the law as they like.
Was it so difficult to implement a rules which state a very clear cut on each issue. Why all the while this regime have to marry go round and reach to a conclusion by implementing or over writing it when there was a reasonable doubt.
As a normal citizen who only hold a Diploma would like to suggest the UMno bigots a very simple and clear cut rules for those mess up with this conversion and body snatching.
1. If a man who has child but is a single father ( Wife died )
Have all the right to convert his child as where he wants to.
2. If a woman who has child but is a single mother ( Husband Died )
Well its apply as above.
3. If a man who has child and the wife is still alive either divorced or not , then the man should be interviewed by religious officers with the presence of both man and woman.
This will untie any reasonable doubts at the very place. One will have to choose either be with the woman and his origin or choose to divorced ( If not ) and convert himself.
This goes to a woman who falls into #3 category as well. In this case it looks like convert first then we apply the rules. Adjust the rules into a dead end.
They might called both man and woman but somehow one object. Then this conversion should put on hold and solve the untie knots.
This is why they are paid for. Not just sitting in the air conditioned
office day in and day out.
At the end they got messed up. It messed so bad until 5 ministries have to sit and do the rework. Well the Mufti reached on the last bus as well. What to do this is BOLEH LAND.. macam2 ada.
#11 by sheriff singh on Sunday, 26 April 2009 - 11:55 pm
They do the same in Sabah and Sarawak.
Only in Peninsula Malaya we have this problem.
#12 by distantmalay on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 12:52 am
sure hope the father jolly knows how to care and feed a one year old girl. Hopefully he placed her in the hands of a reliable day-care giver; if he’s working at all.
if she is found to be malnourished and abused, charge him.
#13 by Bigjoe on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 8:59 am
All religion get crazy at some point.
#14 by zak_hammaad on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 12:42 pm
Bigjoe: Correction: Not all religions, some followers of a religion get crazy at some point.
#15 by zak_hammaad on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 12:48 pm
This saga is a direct result of Malaysia’s infatuation with race and religion. Furthermore, it shows that those who promote a particular faith are in actual fact working against its principles. How? Well firstly in Islam, it is a textual fact that fathers have more legal rights over their children than their mothers. Secondly, the one of the primary reason why Islam does not allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men (yet the vice versa is allowed) is because of the influence and role a father plays within the family. For Muslims, religious identity must be protected.
What this case has highlighted is that the government lacks principles; either you promote religious values when devising a policy to address such problems, or you remain secular and impose your own understanding on the rakyat and make it law. Nazri Aziz is a good example of an ignorant facade that claims to achieve the best of both worlds.
In this case, the government can NOT have its pie and eat it too.
#16 by The Killer on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 3:13 pm
I think it is rather silly of LKS to talk about finding Prasana as Najib’s major test. For a senior politician of his stature, such a silly argument is high unbecoming.
On the other hand I would call upon LKS and his fellow Pakatan leaders to make their collective stand on the issue of religious conversion that the cabinet decided.
This is because there are leaders in PR who are opposing this decision and the Harakah carried the headline \PM Gadai Agama\ today.
If PAS really is for \PAS Untuk semua\ and Pakatan has a common stance, the leadership of Pakatan must state their stance very clearly. I have also yet to see Anwar making any statements either.
What’s happening folks ??
#17 by waterfrontcoolie on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 4:21 pm
God Oh God! Do you need the emotional human kind to do your biding? With a snap of your fingers, we all will think alike and act alike; and peace will prevail on earth. Henceforth, there will not be any trouble! All the human kind will act according to your will! All will be sent to earth and perish back to earth in due time. There will be no hatre nor any desire to compete! We all act like one ! How interesting!!!
#18 by Walinong Sari on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 5:50 pm
‘ I told them that it would reflect very poorly on the capabilities and performance of the Ipoh police if they could not find the baby girl and return her immediately to her mother, as if the baby has just disappeared! ‘ you said
For while I appreciate you comments. Not this time YB
Everything you expect the police to take immediate action. This is more of a civil case. You still want to locate the kids, ask the CID to stop all criminal investigation and start looking for the kids. This job investigation let the politicians handle.
#19 by ekans on Monday, 27 April 2009 - 6:54 pm
The court did grant temporary custody of all 3 children to the mother, a restraining order against the husband, and a request to the police (not the politicians) to assist the mother.
So, if the husband does not return the one of the 3 children, wouldn’t that be against the wishes of the court and considered as an illegal act?
And, shouldn’t this illegal act by the husband be considered as kidnapping which is a crime?
Thus, shouldn’t the police issue an arrest warrant and an all points bulletin on the husband?
#20 by kerishamuddinitis on Tuesday, 28 April 2009 - 7:48 am
Yo Killer, actually the REAL big test is if SLIME BALL can keep his hands off ladies young and old. It seems everytime he opens his mouth, some poor female is DISCOVERED missing. Then he shuts his trap and won’t answer questions – you see the pattern, don’t you? Aminah, may her soul rest in peace and curse be upon the person who ordered the hit on her in the first place, the kidnapped pretty little princess from across the sea who cannot be reunited with her mother and now this little, bitty baby who is being obstructed from being reunited with her mother due to sheer inertia on the part of the PDRM – pundeks deceiving rakyat malaysia – because they know SLIME BALL’s words are hollow! And soon, Peletup Mongolia, SLIME BALL himself, will be buried by all these…and more. Looks like the Indian astrologer is right…Peletup Mongolia will self-destruct in about 6 months time.