Relief for 10 caught in conversion turmoil

The Human Rights Party (HRP) claims it has achieved its aim of upholding the constitutional right for freedom of religion, in bringing relief to 10 Indian Malaysians caught in conversion turmoil for years. The 10 victims of alleged forced conversions are from the three families -- Rajina a/p Krishnan, Rani a/p Kandasamy and Banggarma a/p Subramaniam (left).

On Tuesday, HRP central committee member S Thiagarajan took them to the National Registration Department (NRD) headquarters in Putrajaya to iron out the long outstanding issue with seven NRD officers. According to him, it took over eight hours of persuasion and reasoning with the NRD officers headed by NRD's births, deaths and adoptions deputy director I Azliza Shaharudin to complete this application process for change of name. Initially, HRP encountered resistance from Azliza who after perusal of the documents, rejected the applications on the grounds that these three cases should be brought to the Syariah Court for the change of name and religion to Hindu. After obtaining the Syariah Court order, only then should come back to the NRD, she had said.

Constitutional aspects discussed

But HRP instead briefed Azliza and her officers on the constitutional and legal aspects as well as the United Nations (UN) International Covenant provisions that reads:

• By virtue of Section 6 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Special Provisions) Act 1975 “A registrar (of births) shall record such particulars as may be prescribed in a report book in the prescribed form concerning any birth or death given to him by any person qualified to do so;

• Article 11 of the federal constitution (freedom of religion) and 11(1) that says “every person has the right to profess and practice his religion and to propagate it”;

• The federal constitution is the highest law of the country and is above all other laws, with no disrespect including Islamic laws which are only subsidiary to the federal constitution;

• Article 14 of the federal constitution read with Part II of the Second Schedule provides for citizenship by “operation of law” and “for every person born within the federation of whose parents one at least is at the time of birth either a citizen or permanently resident in the federation;

• Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (that Malaysia ratified in 1995) provides, “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents”; and,

• It also states that parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless.
  

After HRP's briefing on the six rights, Azliza called the respective NRD officers to look into the various conversion cases. Rajina's two-year-old son Tinesh had no birth certificate, since the NRD office in Johor had at the birth of her son refused to include the name of his natural father Mahendran a/l Habimanan and his religion as Hindu in the certificate. Then for Banggarma's two children, Hisyanthini and Kanagaraj, application forms were sought to change their religious status to Hindu and include their father's name Sockalingam a/l Suppiah in their birth certificates, which column had been filled up with the words “Maklumat Tidak Diperolehi” (details not available).

Thiagarajan had also questioned Azliza as to how this could happen when the mother had confirmed that Sockalingam is the natural father, pointing out that this is in contravention of Section 5(1)(a) and (b) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1975. Rani had been told that the amendments she sought in the birth certificates of her children could not be carried out as they issued only once in their life time and remain the history of their birth. The application to change the name and the status from Islam to Hindu was rejected by virtue of Section 15(1) of the Registration Births and Deaths Act 1975.

'NRD must be independent'
However, HRP informed the families that they could use Section 27(3) of the same Act to make corrections to the name and their religious status. They proceeded to submit six applications for changes to the records. This included the case of Rani's (far left in photo) elder daughter Vijaya Letchumy who has a Hindu name but whose religious status in the NRD computer system is Islam, a discrepancy that prevented her from registering her marriage to her Hindu husband Tamilarasan a/l M Rajendran. According to Thiagarajan, the NRD officers had told them that they would revert to the applicants on the matter within two months. HRP will be taking the second batch of ten stateless Malaysian Indians to see the NRD next week.

Earlier on Aug 13, a HRP team led by pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar (right) had initiated the groundwork with a three-hour meeting with births, deaths and adoptions director Mohd Azmin Hassan and 12 of his senior officers at their Putrajaya office. At the meeting the HRP team had emphasised that NRD should act on an independent, non-racial and non-religious basis, in a move to eliminate statelessness and uphold the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

Malaysiakini
25/09/10