The Star
Nation
Sunday April 22, 2007

Courts urged to be strict with errant Muslim fathers

By PARVEEN GILL and LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: Fathers who do not pay child support should be jailed.

This was the consensus at a forum attended by several women’s groups and religious scholars. The participants also made several other proposals to compel fathers to pay alimony.

They include:

• DISALLOWING men from marrying again as long as they have not settled the alimony;
• SETTING UP a child support agency that empowers the authorities to go after fathers who fail to pay up;
• GETTING enforcement agencies, like the Road Transport and Immigration departments, to withhold documents like driving licences or passports of errant fathers; and
• OBTAINING the current address of the men or their workplace so that they can be easily traced.

The forum, organised by Sisters In Islam, was themed Setiap saat berharga, setiap nafkah tertunda anak merana (Every second is precious, as for every delayed alimony there are children suffering). The forum was held to mark the launch of the SIS helpline TeleNisa yesterday.

Commenting on the issue, Terengganu Mufti Datuk Ismail Yahaya said: ”Based on my experience, most fathers who initially claim that they are unable to pay alimony immediately turn up with cash to escape a jail sentence.”

He said Section 186 of the Akta Tatacara Mal (a syariah enactment of practices and procedures) provides for fathers to be jailed if they fail to pay alimony.

In a phone interview later, he said: ”While I am not sure how serious the problem is for non-Muslims, syariah judges should also be firm in their judgment in sending fathers who fail to pay alimony to prison.

“There are provisions in civil law for this, for non-Muslims.”

Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said: “Those in authority must consider what is the best way to defend the rights and welfare of the children. The important thing is to see that justice is done.”

SIS programme manager Norhayati Kuprawi said the responsibility to ensure that a father pays alimony should be the problem of the Government or the state.

Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah said her organisation had proposed that an institution be set up to deduct alimony from the ex-husband's income.

All Women’s Action Society executive director Honey Tan said the most effective method to get ex-husbands to pay up is to put them in jail for a short time.