GEORGE TOWN: Loh Siew Hong was finally able to spend more than an hour with her three children, showering them with gifts like watches, jackets and shoes.
She will be hoping for more time with them when her habeas corpus application is heard on Monday. If she wins, the first thing she wants to do is have them vaccinated.
Loh said she feared all her children have not been vaccinated as she was never approached by the authorities to get her consent as the legal guardian.
“I’m not sure about their vaccination but it’s important that they are protected from the virus,” she said.
She said her focus now is to get her children back and ensure they are all protected from Covid-19 and get a proper education.
During the hour-and-a-half visit yesterday, she said her children were excited to see the gifts.
Asked about their education, Loh said she would sort out their schools once they were with her.
She said she was informed by the Social Welfare Department that her twin daughters, aged 14, are now studying at a local madrasah in Perlis while her youngest son, 10, is at a tahfiz school in Tasek Gelugor, Penang.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, in a statement, has expressed concern over the apparent reluctance of several institutions and authorities to comply with the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to grant sole custody of the children to Loh.
“She obtained a court order of divorce in March last year and then spent nine months searching for her children. She lodged police reports in three different states,” the council said.
It said that since Loh was granted sole custody, it was unjust to ask her to obtain a court order for the release of her own children.
The council called on the authorities to show compassion and cooperate with the mother.
“In view of the Federal Court’s decision in the case of Indra Gandhi, the conversion of Loh’s three children to Islam will be null and void as the mother’s consent was not obtained,” the council stated.
The Federal Court had ruled that both parents must consent to a conversion, in line with the Federal Constitution.
The council stressed that the Perlis Religious Department should cancel the children’s conversion without requiring Loh to obtain a court order to quash it.
Loh has been unable to see her children for three years after her ex-husband, Nagashwaran Muniandy, took them away.
He later converted to Islam and also unilaterally converted the children.