“When the bill was first drafted and then tabled, why was it kept in the dark?
“This is not a secret. MCA should have known about it earlier,” he said.
Yesterday, the Perlis state assembly passed a bill to allow unilateral conversion.
Titi Tinggi MCA assemblyman and state deputy speaker Khaw Hock Tong walked out from the assembly in protest and did not cast his vote.
Indera Kayangan PKR assemblyman Chan Ming Khai was the only person who voted against the bill.
MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong was quoted as saying in the Chinese press that the party would call up Khaw to explain why he had refused to vote.
He said MCA should have found a solution to it, instead of Khaw staging a protest walkout.
Kulasegaran, who is attending a conference abroad, said the bill was not only unconstitutional, but also unfair to society.
He asked about the necessity of making the amendment now when “the government is moving towards a liberal interpretation of the word ‘parent'” in the Federal Constitution.
He said the state should not have brought about such an amendment when the government was planning to amend the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act, or LRA, to ban unilateral conversions.
“Why suddenly throw a spanner in the works to derail the progress?”
He said the prime minister should call for an annulment of the new state provision.
Kulasegaran, who is also a lawyer, is representing kindergarten teacher M Indira Gandhi in challenging her children’s conversion to Islam by her former convert husband Riduan Abdullah.
The Federal Court heard Indira’s final appeal last month and but it reserved its decision.
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