Leave Loh And Her Children Alone

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For the past three years, single mother Loh Siew Hong has been subject to untold suffering, as a result of her former husband’s actions.
He allegedly attacked her with a hammer and left her with serious head wounds that required 27 stitches. He broke her arms and legs, and when she lay on her hospital bed recovering from her injuries, he told her children that she did not care for them.
She was moved into a shelter for victims of domestic violence while recuperating from the assault.
No mother, non-Muslim or Muslim, should have to go through this ordeal. Even Muslims are furious about her nightmare.
Loh’s predicament has exposed many flaws in our system, and the issues have yet to be resolved.
Our dual system of justice has failed many Malaysians. It does not work. It makes a mockery of justice.
Loh’s children were converted without her permission. The law states that children need the consent of both parents before they can be converted. Loh’s husband had taken them away, then converted them.
As a Hindu, Loh cannot defend herself in a shariah court as she is not Muslim. Despite being granted sole custody of her children by the court, after her divorce, numerous busybodies waded in, and assumed the role of mother and father, just to be obstructive.
Loh was not even allowed to have her say. Thankfully, all is now resolved, but at the back of her mind, there is this nagging fear that religious zealots may come knocking on her door to remove her children.
Conversion cases tend to drag on for years. Why can’t the government address this issue seriously, before more families suffer unnecessarily?
Often, the shariah courts are seen as poor at dispensing justice. In many cases, they act as if they supercede civil law. How can a non-Muslim expect redress in a shariah court after one partner has converted to Islam?
What happened to another single mother, M India Gandhi, should not be allowed to happen to Loh. In Indira’s case, the police dismissed the urgency of the matter, and enforced the law at their leisure.
The people who claim that shariah laws do not affect non-Muslims need only to look at the cases involving Loh and Indira to be proven wrong.
When Loh’s marriage started to fall apart, she filed for divorce and was granted sole custody of her children. It was reported that her husband started taking drugs and was not contributing towards the upkeep of the house and his family. He accused her of many things, which were untrue. The last straw was when he attacked her.
Incredibly, many Malays refuse to accept that her children were converted without her permission. Many claim that she had done nothing for three years before searching for her children.
Now that she has successfully fought to be reunited with them, how long will they be together? Why are there no calls for her former husband to be punished for assaulting her, for taking away her children, and for converting them without her consent? Why has the violence against her been ignored?
Loh did not ask that her children be taken from her. That was the work of her former husband.
The Perlis mufti claims that in his state, children need only have the permission of one parent for conversion. This is the other flaw in the system. Why are shariah laws not standardised? How can the same shariah law have a different interpretation in other states? Shouldn’t they all be standardised?
Why was the mufti given easy access to Loh’s twin daughters and not their mother? It is not right that he could be photographed with them and make claims that the children had rejected Loh.
There are three other articles of the Federal Constitution that are important: Article 3, which allows people to practise their religions in peace and harmony; Article 5, which guarantees the right to life and liberty; and Article 11 on the freedom of religion, which confers one the right to educate a child in one’s own faith.
We must also not forget the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Loh and her children have suffered enough. No one can take better care of them than their own mother. The mufti, the welfare department, the NGO for converts and other parties have no right to become the surrogate mother to her children.
Just leave them alone to rebuild their lives. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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