MP SPEAKS | Baby snatching: Ministries must launch independent probes

MP SPEAKS | The news of baby snatching in the Lahad Datu Hospital in Sabah has courted many views from Malaysians who were shocked and appalled at the misfortune of the Bajau Laut mothers who had their babies forcibly taken from them and doctors who lamented in honesty of the poor working conditions in the hospital.

It also touched on the issue of statelessness suffered by many in Sabah, of young marriages and child brides amongst them as well as strong opinions on tough decisions that need to be made in the “best interest of the child”.

The Malaysiakini article that exposed a baby snatching pattern happening in Sabah was met with a denial by the Sabah Health Department which also lodged a police report thereafter.

The article covers a wide range of the systemic problems plaguing the Bajau Laut community in Sabah and how statelessness and child marriages greatly affect the “ownership” of a newborn to its mother.

There are glaring issues in the report that claims a child protection officer had processed the adoption application and the Magistrate’s Court granted the adoptive parents custody of a baby belonging to a Bajau Laut woman, Aimah, all within a week.

READ MORE: Baby snatching: How stateless mums lose their infants in Sabah hospital

In Malaysia, it is common for adoptive parents to wait for years before successfully completing all stages of vetting, processes and procedures set by the Welfare Department and court procedures.

One week for processing and approving an application to the point of ‘delivering’ the baby into the hands of adoptive parents is surprisingly at turbo speed.

However, two particular cases stand out where the village head of Kampung Panji, Fandry Alsao, claimed that his intervention against the “baby snatching” of two Bajau Laut mothers “to file a counterclaim” to the child protection officer had prevented two babies from wrongfully being handed over to adoptive parents.

The same child protection officer claimed that these babies were taken away from their mothers because they were “neglected” and in the cases of Aimah, Sarlina Aswan and Felindaya, two mothers were told to go home while their babies recuperated and one of them who heard that adoption papers were being prepared took her baby and rushed home – not even completing her treatment.

Child marriages

It is clear from the report that child brides exist and child marriages take place in the Bajau Laut community and because most are undocumented, some are detained by the Immigration Department for not having their identity papers.

In 2020, a 16-year-old Bajau Laut mother committed suicide with her five-month-old baby at the Lahad Datu Hospital after she was told she could lose custody of her baby. Surely something so tragic like this could have been prevented.

In addition to that, the Bajau Laut, who mostly are stateless although the Sabah government has recognised them as indigenous people of the state, still have to pay the usual rate for a foreigner which is RM100 for the upfront registration and RM120 for outpatient clinic fee.

READ MORE: Mounting hospital bills led to stateless mother-infant murder-suicide in Sabah

The report also stated that the hospital is often strict about the payment and will normally insist on it. In this case, admission to the NICU would have touched RM10,000 and RM50,000 for Felindaya’s bill. Both bills had not been settled by the mothers and it is unsure if payments were made or not.

Who is benefiting from this? Is the paperwork complete? Did the mothers consent to their babies given up for adoption? If no, how and who cleared the adoption papers? Who made payment for exorbitant amounts for treatment for these mothers?

There are many questions on the matter of “baby snatching” incidents ranging from citizenship issues, maternal healthcare, child marriages, adoption processes, access to information and safeguarding the rights of the Bajau Laut from persecution and prosecution.

Undeniably, the answer to all the allegations in the report lies in the independent investigations that I hope will be carried out by a troika of three ministries - the Health Ministry; Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and Home Ministry - who are the custodians in this case for the Bajau Laut and the findings shared for all.

These catastrophic problems may have begun under the previous administrations, but they must end under the Madani government with a solution keeping in mind human dignity, the right to life, freedom, justice and the rule of law.

TERESA KOK is Seputeh MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.