KUALA LUMPUR – More than a hundred Orang Asli are seeking to nullify their mass conversion to Islam, which they claim was done unlawfully three decades ago.
Malaysiakini, which sighted court documents, reported that 137 people from the Bateq Mayah tribe filed a writ of summons at the high court here in September last year.
The summons named the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa), its director and officer, the Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Muip), the Pahang government, and the federal government as defendants.
The plaintiffs contend that the mass conversion was carried out illegally following alleged threats by a Jakoa officer, at Kg Benchah Kelubi, Merapoh, in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, in April 1993.
The plaintiffs are seeking to transfer the case to the civil high court in Kuantan, and case management for this matter has been set in the Kuala Lumpur court for April 17.
In the mass conversion, the plaintiffs said 57 of them were converted, and the remainder were children born later, in accordance with Malaysian law whereby children born to Muslim parents are considered Muslim and have “Islam” on their identity cards.
They also claimed that they did not repeat the creed as it was recited to them.
They said they then continued to practice the animistic beliefs of their tribe, only realising much later that the word Islam was on their identity cards after they learnt how to speak basic Bahasa Malaysia.
Malaysiakini reported that five defendants have filed a counter-application to strike out the Orang Asli’s suit on the grounds that it was filed out of time nearly 30 years later, based on the statute of limitations.
Muip, meanwhile, has filed to have the case heard in the shariah, rather than civil court. – The Vibes, March 27, 2023
