Baby mix-up case to court finally

Baby mix-up case to court finally

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Two Malaysian women of different races and mistakenly switched at birth 31 years ago appeared in court on Wednesday seeking damages from the hospital where they were born.

Wong Yoke Kwan, an ethnic Indian raised by Chinese parents, and K. Anama, an ethnic Chinese raised by an Indian father and Chinese mother, are seeking unspecified damages from a hospital in northern Perak state, their lawyer C.K. Leong said last week.

The women say the mix-up caused neighbours and relatives to ridicule their families.

They also claim that Wong lost the chance for a better education because the family which raised her was poor, Leong told Reuters.

The lawyer said Wong's new mother "suffered" bringing up the girl whose skin was noticeably darker than her own.

"For the Chinese family it looks very strange to have a child like that, so everyone in the village thought she had an affair with an Indian," Leong said.

Chinese, Malaysia's wealthiest ethnic group, make up about 30 percent of the country's population. Indians, at 10 percent, are among the country's poorest.

Wong, now a housewife, discovered the mistake after someone pointed out her resemblance to her birth mother in Perak's capital Ipoh back in 1992. The families confirmed the mistake with a blood test.

Local newspapers quoted Wong's real father, retired lorry driver P. Krishnan, as telling the Ipoh High Court last month: "I would have been able to provide her with a better chance of progressing in terms of education had there been no mistake."

Wong's new father was a tin miner.

The women filed a suit in 1996, but the hospital argued too much time had passed to hold a hearing. Malaysia's Court of Appeal disagreed.