A DAP lawmaker today dubbed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak an "untrustworthy PM" for seeking a two-thirds parliamentary majority for BN from women to end unilateral conversions.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said in a statement today that the rakyat had waited for eight years to see an end to the issue but to no avail.

Teo said: "In April 2009, the then de facto Law Minister Nazri Aziz stated in the Parliament that children of an estranged couple should remain in the religion of the parents at the point of marriage and a cabinet directive was issued to the effect.

"The rakyat waited for almost eight years to see the proposed Section 88A introduced in the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act (LRA), when the bill was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat on November 21, 2016.

"However, after postponing the second reading of the bill twice, at the third sitting of the parliamentary session in 2016 and the first sitting of the session in 2017, the bill was finally passed in the last sitting, but without Section 88A.

"If the constitutionality of the proposed Section 88A is really the issue, then why did the government not realise it earlier? Were the cabinet and AG (attorney-general) sleeping on duty and failing the rakyat?"

Yesterday, Najib told an audience of women at a Transormasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) event that the government needed a two-thirds majority in Parliament to turn the proposed Section 88A into law and end unilateral child conversion.

The proposed Section 88A(1) states that "Where a party to a marriage has converted to Islam, the religion of any child of the marriage shall remain as the religion of the parties to the marriage prior to the conversion, except where both parties to the marriage agree to a conversion of the child to Islam, subject always to the wishes of the child where he or she has attained the age of eighteen years."

Teo further questioned why Najib had to wait until after the 14th general election to amend the Federal Constitution, in order to pass Section 88A, as all 36 DAP MPs have already stated they will support the bid, while their counterparts in PKR and Amanah have also expressed their willingness to do so.

'What if BN fails to get the majority?'

She also asked what could possibly happen if BN failed to regain a two-thirds majority in the coming election.

"Do the people have to wait for another five years? God knows how many more terms we need to wait until a coalition is able to get a two-thirds majority in our Parliament."

If Najib was sincere about ending unilateral conversions, Teo said, he should table the amendments in the coming parliamentary sitting in October.

If opposition lawmakers do go back on their words and pull back their support for the proposed amendments, the coming general election would be the perfect venue for voters to "punish" the opposition, she added.

"A five percent swing of Harapan supporters to BN will give Najib the two-thirds majority that he is dreaming of.

"If he does not do so, it will only show that he is an untrustworthy PM who has no interest to serve the rakyat.

"So, people who want to end unilateral conversion should just vote Harapan into the government, because even if we do not have the two-thirds majority in Parliament, and an amendment to Federal Constitution is needed, we will do what true leaders should and would do – that is to engage with our opponent for the betterment of the country."