New mechanism to help divorced women
PARIT BUNTAR: The government will introduce a new mechanism to help women who were oppressed from getting alimony after divorce, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa.
He said the new mechanism will allow the Malaysian Syariah Courts Department to make claim from the ex-husbands’ contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and bank accounts to pay their ex-wives for their alimony, upon a decision made by the Syariah Court.
Mujahid said the department’s Family Support Division will give the ex-husbands a grace period of six months after the court’s decision to pay to their ex-wives.
“Within the six-month period, should these women were not given alimonies, legal action will be taken against the ex-husbands, along with a claim for six months of maintenance to their ex-wives that will be given by the Family Support Division,” he told reporters after an event with farmers in Tanjung Piandang here yesterday.
On Wednesday, Mujahid had announced that the government was mulling stiffer measures, including freezing the bank accounts of men who neglect to pay alimony to their ex-wives, a move to uphold Syariah justice for the women after divorce.
He said various discussions were being held to detail more stringent enforcement of Syariah justice for women, who have been neglected by their ex-husbands after divorce.
“I will be meeting the Family Support Division soon to further discuss the legislative aspects of the new mechanism for alimony claims as it falls under the jurisdiction of the respective state administration. Each state has a different set of rules and laws for Muslim families.”
On another matter, Mujahid said he had met 10 Islamic non-governmental oganisations recently to listen to their opinions and views on the issue of the International Convention to Eliminate Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
He said the issues which needed to ironed out in this regard were focused on ensuring the ICERD would not affect the Federal Constitution which sets Islam’s position, freedom of religion, Bumiputera privilege, status of the Malay Rulers and the states’ right to administer Islam.
“Secondly, we must understand that if the agreement is signed, it has yet to become law since it will go back to the Parliament (to be debated). It can be either accepted or rejected.
“Thirdly, the ICERD did not mention that we need to sacrifice positive discrimination. It did not say anything about championing the rights of a marginalised community. If a marginalised community is not taken care of, that is discrimination.”
Mujahid said that the basic foundations of the country cold not be compromised, and he assured that any problem, such as the ICERD issue would be discussed properly by the Pakatan Harapan government.
On Nov 2, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waytha Moorthy was reportedly said that the government is committed to ratify six treaties on human rights, including ratifying ICERD in the first quarter of next year.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad however has assured that ICERD would only be ratified after negotiations were carried out with all races in the country.
Source: NST
