Updated 29th Jan : Information from the Gan’s family:
Lilian,
Latest update: Civil Court dismissed Gan’s Family case today
Updated 29th January : Follow the topic on Lim Kit Siang’s blog.
UPDATED : I have received the pdf files of the conversion certificates, medical certifications and also the MyKad of the late Gan Eng Gor. As my server do not have the capacity to store all these for downloading, I shall put up just the Forms in four pdf files. If you are going to blog about this, please email me so I can forward you the complete files. These files are given with the permission of the Gan’s family.
Zipped files of four forms on the conversion of Gan Eng Gor.
(it may takes like forever to download ‘cos the files are big, 3.3MB and I already resized them)
I found this post on the late Gan Eng Gor’s daughter-in-law’s blog. It is written by :
Gan Hok Ming for and on behalf of the family members of Gan Eng Gor (deceased)
Date: 25th January 2008
I wish to highlight some points that are of concerns to me.
5. We were advised by our solicitors that there are serious irregularities in the said conversion papers especially the Declaration of Conversion into Islam.
a). The declaration was before a Pegawai Ukhuwah. His rubber stamp was on the paper but that officer did not sign.
b). Further there was no signatory at the certification column.
c). There was an illegal alteration on the date to 3rd July 2007.
and I feel it is our responsibilities to bring their plea to the open so that more people are aware of the situation. I echo what is mentioned here :
15. We hope the PM and the higher ups in the Islamic Authorities review this case and to ensure that the truth is unraveled. We hope that all conversions to Islam is fair and transparent and made known to all the next of kin of the convert.
We Seek Justice, Fair play and Truth in this matter.
To my Muslims readers and blogger friends, I hope none of you will see this as our way of rebuking authorities and defying anyone’s religious rights. We are merely asking for understanding, respect and compassion. I am sure many of such cases will arise in future and all we want is to see that justice is done and respect is given to the bereaved family.
I hope fellow bloggers will highlight the points raised by the Gan’s family. This will help to bring awareness and build understanding on what takes place when one is converted to Islam. Bloggers, do your part.
May I remind commentors that none of you are allowed to speculate, condemn any parties or make any unnecessary remarks.
OK, i shaddap. I sit on fence and watch and listen….
– moo_t’s comment are deleted –
moo_t – Stop making stupid comments that has no meaning. You are not welcome here.
Samm – Correct.
i went to gan hor ming’s blog. naturally i have the same set of “why” … mind boggling.
What more can we as public do but to sit and watch what is going to happen. As much as I have respect to the Muslims and the religion of Islam, I do strongly agree with you that religion is a political tool, hence it is greatly exploited to the extend that we are seeing now.
Why does a religion need a court just to oversee how they are doing in their religion, just as if going to the mosque is not enough? I seriously think that one has to be strong in their faith and by looking at things that are going on, I find that those who are strong in their faith lost it because of politics.
I just pray that there is justice in this case of deceased Gan Eng Gor.
If a thumb print or finger print can be used as official signature instead of signature would’nt it raise a question to how the malaysia gobernment would accept this.
What if a son goes to the hospital and take his father/mother’s thumb print when they are asleep/sick/bedridden and bring this to the Majlis AGAMA and convert them. Then when they died, the son will claimed his father/mother is a muslim and buried as muslim. and then, all their wealth will belong to their Muslim Son.
So guys out there, this is how malaysia work. Be aware. If this can happened to Gan’s family this would also happened to your family. better still for all chinese out there, make a declaration before you death saying that you are not a muslim when you’re alive and not even when you are death. Beware of of this.
I shall remain silent on the issue.
moo_t – Go post in your own site lah. If you have nothing relevant or productive opinion to input, keep quiet.
terence – Wise choice. Anyway…in case you kepoh what comment I deleted, it goes something like…”I am yet another person who needs the Pe’em’s help. But he is a very busy man, you know? Can I ask the Peem to come to my house to wash the floor?….”
Or something to that effect. This arsehole here went to every blog to fan the fires, speculating things and condemn the parties involved and yet, have no balls to even blog about this matter to help bring awareness. And he is not the only one. All those who went around others’ posts to add their unwanted 2 cents, talking cock and so on are the first to shy away from doing anything constructive.
Not taking up the issue is one thing. I respect that because we have different things to deal with. But when they have the time to go to every blog to fan fires with their comments usually, causing risks to the owner, and yet, dare not write on their own blog, they have no respect from me.
Angie – Thanks for the very wise advice. This can happen to anyone and that’s why I took the risk to keep writing about it. Over here, we are at the losing end because the law that is suppose to cover us, have washed their hands off and pass it to another side. And we have no say over there. Now, I understand why the media reported that the Gan’s family were not at the Syariah Court. They refuse as a matter of principle and even if they are there, they have no say.
tom – If you read the whole chronological events on the Gan’s family site, you will notice that how one court’s authority rules over another. As what I was told, both courts are under the Constitution and none is above the law/one another. But sadly, here we have no say.
memuslim – After I have seen the documents, I feel compelled to bring it to attention of others. Initially, before I saw these documents, I thought it is more of a family feud but it looks like one side is being overbearing, what with no signatures, incomplete forms etc.
Added : One other thing that crossed my mind is, What if they have buried a kaffir? How are they going to unravel their mistakes? Who is going to make right what is wrong? But as usual, I suppose these will be quickly swept under the carpets and we won’t hear any more from the main media.
I am puzzled how a bedridden person could fill up that form.
They should check it against that useless eldest son’s handwriting.
Man if I knew who that guy is, he is going to pay for it.
Discrepancies or pansies….no one owns your soul. Fighting for such matters are trivial. No one owns your soul. You come from dust and return to dust. All this fighting over religion makes no sense because we all are looking the up to the Higher power up there.
Maybe we have different paths to the creator but it all leads back to the same path.
mark : I wish you will have more respect for the bereaved family. To them, it is a person and they are brought up to give honour to their parents even after death. Maybe, you ought to understand the other folks’ belief before you bulldozed it down as trivial? Then, why don’t you bring the statement
on “we have different paths to the creator but it all leads back to the same path” to the parties who refused to allow the bereaved family members to mourn over the body before they just bury it in haste?
And I hope you have a wider perspective of things. We are not fighting over one body. We are demanding a more systematic and transparent way of dealing with conversion to Islam and to be done legally and acceptable to both Muslims and non-Muslims.
Sometimes, just putting in your two cents here in short few sentences does not make you any smarter than the rest, you know?
shadowfox – What I really wish is for someone who is in the know to explain to us how conversion takes place. What I was told is we must profess two sentences of the belief before one can be converted. I am not sure if these sentences have to be in Arabic. I also want to know if is there an exception to a person who is invalid?
I am a Catholic and I know Catholics do this for very sick and dying persons who didn’t have the chance of going through the whole year RCIA that normal people like us do. But of course, this is done with consent of the families.
Then again, there are Chinese families who did went into problems when one son converted the old man to Christianity when the old man is on his deathbed while the rest wants a Taoist funeral. Saw this in my distance relative family.
Ultimately, it is the hostility shown by the Jabatan Agama and the court that makes us fearful. Can’t someone come out and explain nicely to the rest of the Malaysians so that we understand the procedure better. That way we can move on without that paranoia of body snatchers.
Hi Lilian,
Thanks for posting this. Yes, I agree that there are a lot of discrepencies surrounding this entire sordid affair, having looked at the PDFs u posted.
As a Muslim, I sometimes feel very ashamed and embarassed with the kind of behavior exhibited by many Muslims in this country – it’s almost as if the rights and privileges of others are non-existent. And the obsession of how a Muslim should be buried is rather perplexing, too, since I believe that God judges someone based on their actions in this life, NOT what rituals are performed when they’re buried.
Equally embarassing is the almost carte blanche leaway the Islamic religious authorities give the “complainants”, and also sad at the way the Civil Courts have pretty much washed their hands.
Why Gan’s son did what he did, only he and God will know – but whatever the reasons they may be cannot justify falsifying documents. A crime committed in the name of God, unfortunately is still a crime. And hardship, heartache and anguish inflicted upon others in the name of Islam will do Islam not one iota of good. It perplexes me that what was done here was towards his own flesh and blood.
Converting to Islam doesn’t mean that you no longer have blood relatives, and those blood relatives, even though of their original faith, have their rights, too. I find this all utterly sad, truth be told.
Again, Lilian, thanks again for posting this, which I see as something done not out of spite towards another religion, but as highlighting a WRONG that has been perpetrated. And no amount of wrongs done by Muslims will ever equate to a right in the eyes of God…
PEACE to you and to all…
gosh…the incomplete form is truly questionable and what more those fishy date alterations. my heart goes out to the mrs.gan and her other children. Watever it is, R.I.P mr.gan eng gor.
This is another case that raises a huge shock among the society especially non-Muslims. It could be said that the situations and rights of non-Muslims in this country is now under threat.
There is no clear guides of how the civil law and syariah law interacts.It seems like when comes to the case of Islam issue, the syariah court can have all the say,while the civil court can’t do anything!The case is dismissed just with a judge ruling by syariah law, nothing more could be put on to the trial anymore!
Not hearing so much to the facts that told by Gan’s family, one just take a look on those documents of conversion and would find lots of queries and suspects. The validity of each document is all can be put a big question mark!!
Despite sadness, the worry of Gan’s family does not stop after the burial of Gan Eng Gor the deceased. They would still worry of any consequence that might come later. They are being informed of what are the details and what will happen next. Since the ruling of syariah seems superceding others!!
I hope to see the justice and the truth being revealed while keep on praying for protection and blessing on Gan’s family..
and i am losing confidence in the jurisdiction of the country now..
stevenling – And the frustrating thing is no one seems to have any say over this. The power is all in the hands of the respective state (insert religion) authority and their words are final. I have just surfed over to the overseas sites mentioning this issue and they have nothing good to say about our whole country and misunderstood the truth of Islam. If you search Yahoo, with gan eng gor’s name, you will be shocked with the number of sites talking about this matter and all their information are skewed. Yet, our Government is not giving us clearer picture, more compassion, understanding and etc to clear the religion’s name.
sooi sooi – Yes indeed, that’s why I bring it up again.
walski69 – Thanks for the support. I try my best to bring the most impartial views and talk about the facts only. What is worrying is how other countries perceived this situation and how bad they painted the picture and Islam in general. It is time our ruling party come to realise that this high handed manner cannot go on forever without causing the matter to snowball. Just use yahoo and search Gan Eng Gor name and see how people are smearing Islam due to the action of the Seremban Islamic authority. Our Malaysians may tolerate and be polite about this but not other countries.
correction to my comment:
They are NOT being informed of what are the details and what will happen next. .
Malaysian Malay and Muslim here.
I really think the authority should be offering clearer explanations to the public instead of a few newspaper articles. The man’s conversion is really doubtful.
In the meantime, maybe sending sms and emails to newspaper can help bring attention to this.
Any other suggestions?