KUALA LUMPUR, July 4 ― DAP chairman Karpal Singh (picture) today proposed that the Federal Constitution be amended to ensure any move to convert minors to Islam would require the consent of both parents.

The Bukit Gelugor MP argued that this was the best way to solve the ongoing row over a proposed law to loosen the parental consent required for the conversion of minors to Islam, saying that he would file the motion to make the changes to the Constitution through a Private Member’s Bill should Putrajaya fail to do so.

“I’m calling for a bigger movement for Barisan Nasional to move an amendment to the federal constitution.

“It doesn’t have a two third majority but DAP has 38 seats and all it needs is 13 seats in fact 15 seats for the purpose of amending the constitution,” he told a press conference in Parliament here.

“And the DAP is ready to provide (the votes),” he added.

Karpal said the key amendment would ensure Article 12(4) states clearly that “parent” would mean both parents, arguing that any other interpretation to the word “would lead to a manifestation of injustice”.

“In the first place the word parent in Article 12(4) must, and has to mean, grammatically, both parents if they are alive. The grammatical construction of the word and context in which it appears is compelling.

“Any other interpretation would lead to a manifestation of injustice,” he said.

Karpal’s criticism comes just as his DAP colleague Lim Kit Siang suggested that a full inquiry into the translation error be launched who also argued that when the Administration of the Religion of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act was passed in Parliament in May 1993, it had stipulated the need for dual parental consent when a child under 18 years converts to Islam.

Putrajaya’s latest move to formalise the unilateral conversion of minors into federal law, which politicians and non-Muslim groups have described as unfair, have triggered an uproar among the country’s non-Muslim minorities.

Leaders from both sides of the political aisle have openly opposed the proposed amendment, including Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, the minister who announced the Cabinet prohibition on unilateral child conversion in 2009, spoke out against a proposed law that aims to defeat the decision from four years ago.

In 2009, the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri had said the government would ban the unilateral conversion of those aged below 18 to Islam.

Despite this, Section 107(b) of the Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, which critics have said would do away with the need for consent from both parents for a child’s conversion to Islam, was introduced in Parliament last Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, however, have defended the proposed law, saying that the move was being done according to existing laws.

Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversions have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over the perceived dominance of Islam in the country.

It also highlights the complications of Malaysia’s dual legal systems where Muslims are bound by both civil and syariah laws, the latter of which do not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.

Cases since Nazri’s 2009 announcement, such as that of a Hindu mother in Negri Sembilan who discovered in April her estranged husband had converted their two underage children to Islam after he had done so a year earlier without her knowledge, also illustrate the lack of adherence to the ruling.