'Have a heart' – Wanita MCA tells Welfare Department to reunite mum, kids

'Have a heart' – Wanita MCA tells Welfare Department to reunite mum, kids


Wanita MCA has urged the Perlis Welfare Department to unite Loh Siew Hong with her three children who were allegedly converted to Islam without her consent.

“No parent in the right frame of mind would desire to be physically separated from his or her school-going children by force, more so a mother who carried her child for nine months.

“The emotional burden which the former spousal abuse victim has been enduring after three years of separation and searching for her children is unfathomable,” said the wing's chairperson Heng Seai Kee (above) in a statement this afternoon which called on the Welfare Department to “have a heart”.

She said hope arose on Valentine's Day when Loh saw her 14-year-old twin girls and 10-year-old son for the first time in three years at the Kangar district police headquarters but the joy was short-lived when a Welfare Department officer reportedly denied the mother further access.

“There is no reason for the said welfare officer to have turned Loh away, so long as her Covid-19 daily RTK antigen tests show negative results – a requirement as conveyed to the mother.

“Moreover, both the police and Welfare Department have said that Loh has sole custody of the children. It is not within the powers of the said welfare officer to act like a 'Little Napoleon' to prevent the mother from meeting her children,” she added.

Furthermore, Heng said, based on news reports, the children appear to have been shuffled around to reside at different locations – from the time the father abducted them, placed at a religious NGO in Perlis, to Rumah Taman Sinar Harapan, a Welfare Department facility in Jitra, Kedah under the care of the Perlis Welfare Department and now allegedly at another home in Arau, Perlis.

“The Perlis Welfare Department must explain why it relocated the children after just one day without informing Loh, thereby giving the mother a further runaround.

“Such regular or abrupt change of abodes is unhealthy for the children's mental development or stability. They sow confusion, instil uncertainty and anxiety besides interrupting their studies.

“Both the children and mother have suffered emotional torment and yearn to be reunited. There is no need to separate them further,” she added.

Restore confidence in government bodies

Heng also noted how the police force is perceived as oblivious or unhelpful towards executing court orders to ensure that minor children in unilateral conversion cases are handed over to the parent whom custody was awarded to as seen in the Indira Gandhi case.

Therefore, she said the Perlis Welfare Department could reinstate confidence in government bodies by ensuring a secure reunion between Loh and her children.

“It should act to unite and not divide families.

“A compassionate Perlis Welfare Department that empathises with the mother’s dilemma plus her loss of income from her unpaid leave coupled with the expenses she has had to bear in her search will reflect the values of not only the department but the ministry as a whole,” she added.

Heng also said Wanita MCA's legal advisory and women's aid centre is prepared to extend counselling and legal advice to Loh.

Earlier, Malaysiakini reported that Loh has demanded the religious authorities to prove that she consented to the children's conversion.

Loh and her husband Nagahswaran Muniandy separated in March 2019 and her children were taken from her.

It was reported that Nagahswaran abducted the children in Loh's absence to be converted to Islam and placed them in an Islamic centre in Perlis. He is now in prison for a drug-related offence.