don't give up... oh siti, don't give up...

The outcome of the Siti Fatimah case, while a well earned victory for the applicant, Tan Ean Huang, raises more questions than it answers. Notwithstanding the constitutional issues pertaining to the jurisdiction and scope of Malaysia’s syariah framework vis-à-vis the Malaysian civil courts on the issue of apostasy, the Siti Fatimah decision as reported in the local mainstream media does provide Malaysians with the necessary clarity needed on such sensitive matters.

It may be noted that constructive discourse on the matter cannot be made just yet, as the decision of the learned Syariah Judge has yet to be published. However, as a commentary of the tone of the various reports in the local mainstream media (in particular, The Star and Bernama) the following issues, amongst other things, appear to have arisen:-

(i) that the MAIPP intend to appeal on grounds that her marriage would not have been annulled by her renunciation of her faith; and

(ii) that MAIPP appear to have been negligent in its role of “guiding” her back into the religion;

The MAIPP’s statement on the annulment is unnecessarily belligerent and obnoxious. While Courts and the religious authorities take the view that a civil marriage is at end when a conversion into Islam by either spouse occurs, it would appear to be repugnant that it is not the same if a renunciation were to happen as it has in this case. Why the double standards? Clearly all Malaysian citizens are equal in the eyes of the law.

What was it that MAIPP was required to do to ensure that Tan Ean Huang did not fall by the way side? There have been concerns and misgivings that an application to renounce one’s faith in Islam within the Syariah framework in Malaysia would lead to persecution and human rights abuses arising from the manner in which religious authorities conduct and discharge its obligations when “guiding” an applicant back to the faith after such an application is made.

We have only to look to the outcome of the Revathy case and the atrocious manner in which the accused and her child were treated to know that something is not right with the present system of handling apostasy cases. The Malaysian Courts, both syariah and civil, and the relevant authorities have to bear in mind that the Syariah framework, is a creature of statute, i.e. the Federal Constitution and not a separate “constitution” of Malaysia.

While freedom of religion is a reality in Malaysia, under the Federal Constitution, it must be clearly affirmed that Malaysia is a secular state and as it so, all Malaysians must be guaranteed their freedoms to enter and leave their respective religions by their own will and conviction, despite the affront that it may cause to another’s belief. It is paternalism, a misconceived notion of public order and this ever growing need for certainty that will diminish one’s faith, to which all Malaysians of any faith will ask, “whatever happened to faith in God?”