KUALA LUMPUR, July 2 — A translation error is at the heart of a growing row over the conversion of children to Islam, a minister suggested today, saying that the proposed law granting the Muslim parent the right to do so is unlikely to be presented for voting in Parliament.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam (picture) was reported to have said the Malay version of the proposed amendment to section 107(b) of the Administration of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013, which states the conversion of a minor requires the consent of a “parent or guardian”, was not in line with the English version.
However, he said the Malay version translates the word “parent” to “ibu atau bapa” (“mother or father”).
“The Bill is a totally new Bill. I think this part was not seen by them,” the Segamat MP was quoted as saying by the Malaysiakini news portal in a news conference here, referring to his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“When they tabled it and we saw that particularly Bahasa Malaysia translation was not in line with our current thinking. We voiced our views in the Cabinet and at the moment we are seeing how we can resolve the issue,” Dr Subramaniam reportedly said.
The Bill was tabled in Parliament last Wednesday but Dr Subramaniam, who is also MIC deputy president, was also reported as saying he did not think the Bill would be presented for voting.
“I don’t think it will reach that stage,” he said when asked if the MIC would vote against the Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
The Bar Council had pointed out the translation error in a statement last week, on the heels of an uproar from the country’s largest non-Muslim faith group over the proposed law.
Both the Bar Cuoncil and the Malaysian Consultative Council Of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) ― the umbrella body of Malaysia’s non-Muslim creeds ― had said the Bill that aimed to broaden the definition of parental consent in the conversion of children under the age of 18 to mean either instead of both parents, was “unconstitutional”.
Custodial tussles in cases of unilateral child conversion have been a growing concern over the years and provide a high-profile glimpse of the concerns of Malaysia’s religious minorities over 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 does not apply to or recognise non-Muslims.
In 2009, then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the government will ban the unilateral conversion of minors to Islam, in an attempt to assuage concerns among Muslim-dominated Malaysia’s religious minorities.
But cases since, such as that of a Hindu mother 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, illustrate the lack of adherence to the ruling.
