Council seeks to see proposed amendments to Marriage and Divorce Act before it is tabled

KUALA LUMPUR: The non-Muslim interfaith council will not agree to the proposed amendments to the the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 until it scrutinises the Bill.
The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) urged the government to halt the tabling of the proposed Bill to the Cabinet.
"We welcome the Prime Minister's announcement that the law should be amended. We heard rumours that the law will be tabled to the Cabinet tomorrow (Wednesday).
"But we have not seen any draft of the proposed amendments. We cannot agree to the amendments without seeing the draft," its deputy president Datuk Mohan Shan told a press conference today.
Among its proposal, MCCBCHST said the amendments to the law should include provisions that would make it compulsory for a converting spouse to inform the other spouse within seven days of such conversions.
"This will prohibit secret conversion. There must be an obligation placed on the converting spouse," its vice-president Jagir Singh said.
The council said when one party to the civil marriage converts to Islam, amendments should give the Civil courts "exclusive jurisdiction" on the marriage notwithstanding the conversion.
It also called for the amendment to Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution where the word "Parent" be amended to "Parents" and that both parties be allowed to file a divorce petition when either one converts to Islam.
The council's secretary-general Prematilaka Serisena said the government should engage stakeholders and take into consideration their input to the amendments.
"When you are going to amend the Law Reform Act, which involves the whole fabric of the nation, you need to present the proposed law and discuss it with stakeholders.
Prematilaka said the government cannot say that MCCBHCST has agreed to the amendments when it has never seen the substantive content of the proposed bill.
"We need to see what are the effects and impacts. Let our legal team and the leaders of the various faith scrutinise the bill. It has to be an equitable situation, you cannot hide it and say we have agreed," he urged.
Prematilaka also said the government should correct the "administrative error" in the publication of the Federal Constitution and restore the original interpretation of "parent" to "ibubapa" and not "ibu atau bapa, which has indicated that either a mother or a father could decide on their children's faith leading to unilateral conversions.
The council was responding to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's announcement on Aug 25 that the government planned to amend the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 to resolve the persistent interfaith controversies due to the unilateral conversion of children by one parent.