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©The Malaysian Insider (Used by permission)
by Debra Chong

A view of the chaos in the hall at the forum.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — An open forum organised by the Bar Council to discuss matters of conflict in family law arising from one party's conversion to Islam today was interrupted by protesters from several Malay-Muslim movements.

In her opening speech, Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan invited the protesters to join the forum and share their dissenting views.

"I'm aware this forum has drawn many criticisms from many quarters. I don't have a problem with criticism... there are demonstrators outside, you can hear them," she said.

Jerking her chin towards the windows at the back of the auditorium, she continued: "We have absolutely no quarrel with them. They are exercising their freedom of speech. We hope they'll be allowed to carry out their demonstration peacefully. We're certainly not lodging any police report."

At 9.25am, just as the forum was warming up, Ambiga informed the participants inside the auditorium that the police had advised the forum be wrapped up by 10am.

According to reports, the 100-plus protesters, who had been demonstrating outside the building since 8am, had swelled tremendously and were in danger of turning more than unruly.

[Strong police presence outside the Bar Council building.] At 9.50am, a handful of protesters, led by Kulim Bandar Baharu parliamentarian Zulkifli Noordin from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), muscled their way to the front of the first-floor auditorium at the Bar Council headquarters in Leboh Pasar Besar here amid an ongoing and lively discussion on the 2006 court case of R. Subashini, whose ethnic Indian husband T. Saravanan had embraced Islam and converted their five-year-old son without her knowledge or consent.

Despite the heavy police escort, heated words were exchanged between some of the protesters and some members of the Bar Council. The word "monkey" was heard bandied about several times by both sides.

Calls for calm by the forum moderator, Zarizana Abdul Aziz, a lawyer from the Penang-based non-government organisation Women's Centre for Change, were ignored, as were calls from the floor for the protesters, hogging the central aisle, to sit down and not block the view of the forum panellists.

Surprisingly, the discussion still went on. In fact, the topic had moved onwards to the case of S. Shamala, whose husband Dr M. Jeyaganesh embraced Islam four years after their marriage and converted their two children as well.

The incident came close to turning into a real fracas when one of the protesters, a stout man in a white shirt with green lining on the sleeves, grabbed a microphone and shouted: "I represent Umno Malaysia! Close this forum right now!"

The man, who only identified himself as Jais, added: "We want to give advice; next time, don't have things like this that challenge the people of Islam."

Immediately, an incensed woman, lost within the crowd of hulking men, latched onto another microphone and hollered right back: "You represent Umno; I represent the Muslims! I'm ashamed by your behaviour! Islam does not condone this behaviour! Do not make use of Islam!"

Turns out that the chilli padi was Dr Mehrun Siraj, an outspoken law lecturer at the International Islamic University and a former member of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).

The male protesters looked fit to burst a blood vessel at her words. Fortunately, members of the Bar Council secretariat were on hand and quickly intervened before anything untoward happened in that highly charged atmosphere.

A lawyer on the sidelines shook her head and tsk-ed at the chaos in front of her. "They're bullies! Such bullies!" she said, though she did not elaborate whom she was referring to.

[Protestors gather outside to express their opposition to the forum.] The organising committee from the Family Law Department of the Bar Council went around the room and repeatedly called on the protesters and the annoyed participants to take their seats. They too were mostly ignored.

It was only when Ambiga finally took control of the microphone and announced in a loud and exasperated voice that the crowd inside finally listened: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to close this forum, right after everyone sits down. Please sit down."

The time was three minutes to 10am.

For all that the forum lasted only an hour and 10 minutes, when it was schedued to last till lunch time, Ambiga was satisfied. She found the discussion fruitful.

"It's unfortunate that we could not carry on with the forum. It's a real shame we had to stop the forum due to the advice from the police.

"I have great faith in our ability and maturity, as Malaysians, to discuss sensitive issues sensibly. I do not subscribe to the view that we cannot talk about sensitive issues, not for one minute. Not today. Maybe it was the case 30 years ago, but not today," Ambiga concluded.

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