Kota Kinabalu: Police have confirmed that the 16-year-old Christian SMK Kinarut student who is alleged to have been converted to Islam by the school's warden is not yet a Muslim, although practising a Muslim lifestyle.
"This is because she is still a minor and under the Constitution, parents have the right to determine the faith of their children," a police spokesperson told Daily Express.
He added that the matter should be solved amicably between the parents and the school and that NGOs should not interfere, adding that police are not involved in the tussle over guardianship of the minor.
"This is between the parents and the school. The police have nothing to do with this. In fact, the case is very simple. The father should just sign a consent letter allowing his daughter to stay in the hostel if that is what he wants. This has nothing to do with the police," the police spokesperson said, when contacted, Wednesday.
He said the 16-year-old student had lodged a police report because she was scared her father would beat her if she went home and the villagers would shun her for had happened.
When police asked if she was forced to make the report, the girl said she was doing so willingly. "Of course we are also concerned if she would be beaten."
Meanwhile, Kawang Assemblyman Datuk Ghulam Haidar Khan Bahadar said he and Papar MP Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin would visit the family in Kg Kaiduan later this week.
"I am deeply concerned that this is happening right in our backyard. I would like to show our support to the family who, I am sure, is under severe stress right now.
"This is totally unbecoming of our multi-racial and multi-religious community. We must submit to the Constitution, which state that only parents have the right on their underage children," he said.
The student was alleged to have been converted by her hostel warden late last month and the family only found out about it when she came home during school break, donning a tudung, a Muslim headscarf.
A few days prior to it, a message had gone viral on WhatsApp, purportedly written by a teacher of the same school, asking recipients to pray for the girl as she was about to become a Muslim.
Meanwhile, the father of the girl confirmed he would be suing the school over the matter so that other non-Muslim parents nationwide would forever not have to go through such an ordeal.
Jilius Yapoo, a 46-year old rubber tapper from Kg Kaiduan, said the school needs to take responsibility for what happened as teachers in the school colluded to prevent his children from even meeting him.
The school's Principal had claimed that she was in the dark as to what was going on, in relation to the alleged conversion.
"If I do not take any action, the same thing will happen again in the future and other people's daughters and sons will become the next victims. They should not have kept me in the dark over my daughter's alleged conversion," he said when met here, Wednesday.
The father of eight had gone to his daughter's school, SMK Kinarut, early Wednesday morning to fetch his daughter after the school's administration informed him that the girl and her three younger siblings would be allowed to go home to visit their sick mother.
However, when he reached the school at 8.30am, he was informed that he could not pick up his children as they would have to be in school to study for upcoming exams.
Yapoo, who was accompanied by his church's pastor James Mojikon and Angkatan Gabungan Rakyat Asli Sabah (Agaras) President Michael Frederick, was also told that the daughter is now under police protection and it was up to the police to determine whether she could go home or not.
The girl, apparently, had lodged a police report stating that she was afraid that her father would beat her and the villagers will shun her if she goes home.
The group was then made to wait for the police by the school, who said a team was on the way, to solve the matter.
About an hour passed, and after there was no sight of the police, even though the police station is only a few minutes away from the school, Yapoo told the teachers he was going to get a drink at a nearby restaurant.
"When I went back to the school about 15 minutes later, they immediately asked me where I have been because the police had just left and they were looking for me," related Yapoo.
In the end, the school relented and agreed to let the students go. The family however did not get too far before they were intercepted by teachers in Kinarut town and brought the students back to the school.
Confusion soon ensued and Yapoo left the school compound and was made to wait for his children in town together with Mojikon and Frederick.
The group waited for another hour before Yapoo finally received a message from his eldest daughter who told him that they will be sent home by their teacher, but the same teacher will be picking them up again on Thursday at their house in Kg Kaiduan at 2pm.
The stunned father took a few seconds to compose himself before expressing his concern about what more the teachers would be saying to his children in the car.
"I am very disappointed at this turn of events. I have come here with the idea that I would be able to take my children and bring them home. I do not understand why I am not given that freedom when I am the parent here.
"I wonder what else the children will hear from their teachers on the way back home. I only want to talk to my daughter," he said.
Their mother, he said, had been very worried and sad about their daughter to the point that she had refused to eat for quite some time now.
"Usually, she would cook for us and we will eat together. But now, I always eat alone. Whose heart will not break?" he asked.
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