Some years back, Malaysia was hit with the legal battle a kindergarten teacher, Indira Gandhi, had to endure when her ex-husband had converted her 3 children into Islam without her knowledge, and kidnapped the youngest of the 3. She has still not been reunited with her daughter.
Now, unfortunately, another disheartened mother has to experience the same thing.
Let’s start from the beginning
Single mother, Loh Siew Hong, had divorced her husband, Nagahswaran Muniandy, and obtained a court order granting her custody of her 3 children, but had to search for them after they were taken by her now former husband and his family.
On 12 February, she lodged a police report seeking her 3 children but was informed that her children were with religious authorities in Perlis. Her ex-husband had handed over the 3 underaged children to a religious entity to be placed under their care and to be converted to Islam while he went to jail.
During the time this was happening, Loh was in a welfare home due to her horrible experiences with her ex-husband.
“She could not contact her children simply because she was admitted in a welfare home after being severely assaulted by a drug addict husband,” shared Prof Dr. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang.
Considering it was all done without Loh’s knowledge, which from understanding Indira Gandhi’s case, the conversion is deemed unlawful.
“To those who converted the children, (they) must have known in the first place that the conversion of minors in the presence of only 1 parent is illegal,”
“The Federal Court made it clear in the case of Indira Gandhi, that the conversion of her underaged daughter was not acceptable,” Prof Dr. Ramasamy added.
Despite that, the Perlis Religious Department had allegedly shown documents of the conversion during a temporary reunion with Loh and her children.
The temporary reunion
Following her police report, Loh was allowed a short visit with her kids at the Kangar district police headquarters, where she was presented with the conversion documents prepared and witness by Nazirah Nanthakumari, who runs the Islamic NGO in which the children were initially handed over to.
The officers had brought them over from the third party Islamic organisation that was holding them. The visit was the first time Loh had seen her children in 3 years.
The reunion ended up only being temporary despite the police allegedly allowing Loh to take her children with her due to her having legal custody of them.
This is because the traumatised children were informed that their father, Loh’s ex-husband, would kill himself if they went with her.
“It is clear the children are in a stressed and traumatic condition. The children were told that their father will commit suicide in his detention centre, if they followed the mother today,” ADUN Bagan Dalam Satees Muniandy shared after he accompanied Loh to the visit.
Worried for her frightened kids, Loh turned down the offer to take them for the time being and all that were present agreed to placing the children under the care of the Perlis Welfare Department until a decision is made by the High Court on a Habeas Corpus application on 21 February.
She had also been granted visitations with her children until the court date, but that quickly turned sour.
Visitations
As per the agreement, Loh was to be the only person allowed to visit the children and would have to take Covid-19 tests before her visit, to which she agreed to.
“I was told to get my Covid-19 tests done with the results, so I prepared everything and was going to visit them when the welfare officer called me at about 12.40pm to say that I was not allowed to visit them due to the increase in Covid-19 cases,” Loh said, as reported by The Star.
Thankfully, she was later informed that she is, once again, allowed to visit her children, but only once a week.
“It’s god to know that the mother can now see her children but for us, the mother should be able to visit her own children everyday, as her the earlier arrangement,” said David Marshel, president of Penang-based NGO Tamilar Kural Malaysia when contacted by The Star.
At one point throughout this ongoing experience, Loh had even shared that she would be willing to convert to Islam herself, if it means she gets her children back.
“I don’t mind converting as long as they can be at home with me.”
Though, for now, everyone will have to wait until 21 February for what will hopefully be a just reunification of a mother and her children.
“Now, as the children are taken away from the unrelated third parties (Nazirah Nanthakumari and the Madrasah affiliated with Jabatan Agama Islam Perlis), we hope the mother and the children will be reunited forever, with the High Court’s intervention on Monday,” Satees Muniandy added.
We’ll be waiting for good news.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Also read: M’sian Dies of Alleged Heart Attack In Police Custody, Family Only Finds Out 53 Days Later
