KUCHING, May 3 — The government should set up a special council to deal with Muslim converts who wish to revert to their original religion, Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian said today.

The incumbent state lawmaker for Ba’kelalan said such a council would help smooth the process for applicants who he claimed often face a long and emotionally taxing time in the courts in their bid to assert their personal beliefs.

“There are several other cases where converts are trying go back to their former religions, but are faced with many barriers,” he said in the wake of the National Registration Department (NRD) discontinuing its court appeal to keep Dayak Bidayuh Roneey Rebit a Muslim on his MyKad.

Baru also urged the federal government for a policy to ensure no Malaysians are forced to remain in a religion against their will.

“There are many other conversion cases that deserve the same attention from Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem and Najib, if they are sincere in upholding the people’s rights to freedom of religion,” he said.

Roneey’s case had blemished Adenan’s pledge to protect the constitutional freedom of religions for Sarawakians just days before the May 7 state election.

Baru also called on Adenan to look into the case of Sharon Fiona Braoh, 32, who had converted to Islam upon marriage and now sought to revert to Christianity and amend her identification as a Muslim from official records.

“She is caught in a situation similar to that of Roneey’s case,” the lawyer said.

Roneey’s case made national headlines on March 24, when the Kuching High Court recognised his constitutional right as an adult to choose his religion and ordered the NRD to issue him a new Mykad.

On March 17 this year, through the legal firm of Messrs Baru Bian Advocates, Sharon filed a notice of application for judicial review with the Kuching High Court, naming the director general of the NRD as the sole defendant for refusing to issue her with a new MyKad minus the word “Islam” and to revert to her original name from her Muslim name Nur Shafiqah Abdullah.

According to her affidavit in support of her application and sighted by Malay Mail Online, Sharon embraced Islam after marrying a Muslim.

She later divorced the man and married another Muslim in 2010, but the second marriage also ended in divorce three years later.

Baptised at St Paul’s Church in Kuching on Jan 27, 2013, Sharon has applied to the NRD to revert to her original name and religion on her MyKad.

On August 13, 2014, the Sarawak Islamic Department issued her a Letter of No Objection for her to make amendments to her particulars on her MyKad, but on February 11, 2015 NRD rejected her application.