Social activist stops marriage of child bride in Prai
A social activist in Penang has called on the government to speed up the process to ban child marriages, claiming he stopped one in Prai on Wednesday.
On Feb 6, Stanley Sudhagaran received a tip-off that an 11-year-old female child was about to be married off by her parents to a 21-year-old man at midnight.
According to Stanley, the marriage was to take place in Prai in a family home, conducted by an unauthorised religious leader from the Rohinga community.
"I immediately decided to intervene and made a police report in Prai...
A social activist in Penang has called on the government to speed up the process to ban child marriages, claiming that he stopped one in Prai on Wednesday.
On Feb 6, Stanley Sudhagaran said he received a tip-off that an 11-year-old girl was about to be married off by her parents to a 21-year-old man at midnight.
According to Stanley, the marriage was to take place in Prai in a family home, conducted by an unauthorised religious leader from the Rohingya community.
"I immediately decided to intervene and made a police report in Prai.
"While I must acknowledge that the police were very helpful in assisting me in trying to stop the marriage, however, their power seems to be limited due to the laws in this country," Stanley told Malaysiakini.
"The investigating officer of the case informed me that they had no power to stop the marriage if the family had consented.
"However, the police tried hard to contact the state religious authority to intervene as they had the power to do so, taking into account that this marriage was not approved by the state religious authority and the victim is a Muslim Rohingya," he added.
"Sadly, the police failed to get in touch with the state religious authority as it was already around 9pm and it was a public holiday."
Stanley (photo) said the police then agreed to accompany him to the venue and talk to the parents.
Upon arriving at the venue, he was shocked to see a big feast being prepared, with many guests, all from the Rohingya community.
"I met the father of the child and told him that he would be getting into trouble if he proceeded with the marriage.
"I told him that it was illegal for a child under the age of 16 to get married in Malaysia.
"I also met the groom-to-be and informed him that he could be committing statutory rape if he proceeded with the marriage.
"The religious authority would also take action as they have not sanctioned the wedding," Stanley said.
After almost three hours of discussion with the family, the father finally agreed to call off the wedding.
"He also agreed to send the child to continue her education in our refugee school as I had offered to take her in," he added.
"This story had a happy ending. However, sadly, there are many incidents such as these involving the Rohingya community where their cases go unreported.
"This is also not the first time I have come across such an incident," Stanley said.
"Just a few months ago, we managed to stop another wedding of a 12-year-old and a 30-year-old man with the help and intervention of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)," he claimed.
Stanley is the co-founder and one of the directors of the LifeBridge Learning Centre, a school that provides free education to refugees in Penang.
He is also the northern region coordinator for the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Centre).
However, he said that he is handling this issue in his personal capacity.
Stanley called on parliamentarians to urgently enact laws that would ban child marriages in Malaysia.
He said it is time the Pakatan Harapan government seriously started rolling out policies to protect every refugee in the country.
In August last year, Penang had instructed its state legal adviser to look into laws to increase the age of consent for child marriages.
However, many are disappointed with the federal government for its delay in tackling the issue.
Apart from your commitment to helping others, Stanley Sudhagaran, you are one really brave young man. From your name it appears that you are an Indian Christian, yet you were daring enough to go into a strange, possibly hostile Muslim situation to rescue a 11-year old girl from the ravages of child-marriage. The guests had arrived, the wedding ceremony almost concluded, anything could have happened, yet you hanged in there to protect the child. You sigh in relief and say that this story has a happy ending. Maybe. Maybe not. You can now expect the accusations to start rolling in and this episode has all the necessary ingredients for those who want a cause – yes, a Christian interfering in a Muslim event. While I compliment you on what you did, I would suggest you always look back over your shoulder. Be especially wary of black SUVs in a convoy.
Stanley, you are a true champion. Keep up the good work.
This young man has a better moral compass , courage, long term vision and conviction than quite a number of our people in power. Thank the stars that he is not a cowardly politician masquerading as a Minister. Well done Stanley. One day this girl might be eternally grateful to you.
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