Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email I see the non-existence of compulsory marriage course for non-privileged malaysians as a form of discrimination. Why should it be provided for certain segment of the society only? Isn’t a happy family vital for practically everything that our leaders want our country to achieve? From economic progress to national unity, a strong and stable family is critical, yet we can’t even seem to have a fair provision in providing marriage courses.
Now, PPP’s Deputy Minister Murugiah says that a memorandum will be submitted (by whom under what capacity?) to provide compulsory marriage course for non-malays. Can this be also included in the Cabinet Committee for Indian Community?
A MEMORANDUM will be submitted to the Government urging it to make it compulsory for non-Muslims to attend marriage courses before their wedding, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah.
He was reported in the Malaysia Nanban as saying that the number of divorces among the Indian community had risen tremendously.
The Government could give approval to a marriage after the bride and groom present their certificate of attendance at the marriage course, he said.
Yeap, its about time someone take this matter into serious consideration. Marriage courses will certainly be useful, especially for the Indian community. Our divorce rates are getting higher and higher. As someone who does counselling, I can tell you this, most of the people who come to me have major problems with their marriages. They don’t know what they are getting into and they are not well prepared. Marriage courses will certainly help. I hope this really meterialises.
Im agree with it. As mithiri said, the marriage course is a must for all INDIANS. Most of the Indians don’t know, what is the meaning and important’s of their relationship in life as ‘Husband’ & ‘Wife’. By attend this course they will realise what are their duties as husband, wife, father & mother. I don’t mean to hurt anyone but this is the fact. So in future, there will be less divorce rates in our Indian community.
This is not something new lah…there is already a module prepared by the Ministry of Family, Women and Community Development called SMARTStart for non Muslims. In fact the Tamil version was made available back in 2003. In that year YSS and the Ministry signed a MOU and had “train-the-trainer” sessions for registrars.I don’t know. But why this is not made available to couples getting married I am not sure.
The ministry also supported the course to be made compulsory. But knowing the attitude of Malaysians, there were strong calls against it. I remember the STAR being one. As such, the attempt was dropped.
Personally I think this is useful but with the high level of politiking in the country, I think it would be hard for any such policies being implemented. If MIC were to support this, HINDRAF and PR will oppose it to death, giving a million reasons and claim non Muslims are being victimised and as another example of Islamisation.
Read the link….btw this only goes to show that the MIC wasn’t sleeping or did nothing for the community. Read the related articles in YSS website while you are at it….
http://www.yss98.com/03_service/2003/news/disp_ar.php?file=03020100-20030929-0101.htm
http://www.yss98.com/40_media/2003/news/disp_ar.php?file=40000000-20030929-0101.htm
Amended version :
This is not something new lah…there is already a module prepared by the Ministry of Family, Women and Community Development called SMARTStart for non Muslims. In fact the Tamil version was made available back in 2003. In that year YSS and the Ministry signed a MOU and had “train-the-trainer” sessions for registrars.I don’t know why this is not made available to couples getting married by those who attended the course.
The ministry also supported the course to be made compulsory. But knowing the attitude of Malaysians, there were strong calls against it. I remember the STAR being one. As such, the attempt was dropped.
Personally I think this is useful but with the high level of politiking in the country, I think it would be hard for any such policies being implemented. If MIC were to support this, HINDRAF and PR will oppose it to death, giving a million reasons and claim non Muslims are being victimised and as another example of Islamisation.
Read the link….btw this only goes to show that the MIC wasn’t sleeping or did nothing for the community. Read the related articles in YSS website while you are at it….
http://www.yss98.com/03_service/2003/news/disp_ar.php?file=03020100-20030929-0101.htm
http://www.yss98.com/40_media/2003/news/disp_ar.php?file=40000000-20030929-0101.htm
Yes, i remember the modules, plus involvement of the ministry. In fact, MHS and some NGOs did and still organise such courses (voluntarily). But my contention is to make it compulsory. Rather than going about with ifs and buts, MIC or MHS should make a stance and demand for compulsory course for Hindus (or if possible Indians). Leave out the Chinese or other races who are not interested at the moment. Let’s see who actually opposes this demand, be it Hindraf or any other group. If someone does something good, without any ill-intention, it will be supported.
If you read the article in 2003, the ministry mentioned that the problem in making it compulsory is that there’s no body like JAKIM to oversee the course for non-muslims. MIC and MHS are not legal government entities. Thus, the real problem is the opposition/red tape in creating such an entity or allocating responsbility to a suitable govt dept. Now, why didn’t the responsible political parties make such effort to create a dept for this purpose? Back in 2003 and before, there’s no PR and if the program is done according to respective religions, there’s no question of Islamisation.
The Star’s VK Chin is another political mouthpiece. He writes mind-boggling things most (if not all) of the time.
I suspect that the interference from politicians, plus the insincerity of the respective authorities is the actual cause.
I agree with you on this.
However, I think it will be difficult to make it compulsory for Hindus only. Before this is made compulsory, there has to be laws that needed to be introduced and I am not sure if laws can be made just to cater for one community/ religion and exclude others.
My believe is that this should be driven by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), which is political. If this is spearheaded by MIC, I will bet my last ringgit that HINDRAF and other PR leaders will oppose it to death and politicise the issue just like the English/Maths issue.
From what I understand, the main reason why this was dropped was due a lack of support at the cabinet level for the proposal (mainly from the Chinese, though I heard SV did push for it). Also the MCCBCHST did not push for it and there were some NGOs against it. Though I am not sure about this but I think the Church groups were against it as they had their own agenda and module and refused to use an uniform program prepared by the Ministry.
sorry..typo…it should read…
My believe is that this should be driven by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), which is NOT political.
What they will teach in the marriage course?? how to live happily?? I think for muslims they will teach by islamic family laws such as polygamy and etc etc.
Do hindus have family laws?? Im living in joint family I and my wife staying together with my parents brother,sister (in tamil its called kuthu kudumbam)…..but some could prefer nuclear family with only husband, wife and childrens.
If they introduce marriage courses for non muslims the gov will emphasis joint family or nuclear family??
In my view GOV or religious body like MHS shouldnt intefere in my personal life and teach how I and my wife should live.
Hi Farmer,
Actually, its not about nuclear or extended family. There’s are plenty of marriage course guides available for Hindus. Some organisations also offer courses, and this is common worldwide.
Personally, I have not seen the module prepared in Malaysia together with the govt dept. My understanding is that it also covers things like responsibility of spouse, managing finance, family planning, raising children, law/legal rights etc. You see, our religion is all encompassing – it covers everything from birth to death and beyond!
I would like to see a guide that provides resources and references from valid sources, not just some “guideline” from MHS. MHS is just organiser or supervisor, they should NOT inject their own ideology or preferences in such modules. They should not encourage certain group over others. They must respect the devotees’ intelligence by only provide information and option. They can promote yoga, spiritual organisations, doing charity at temples, reading thevaram and thrukural, celebrating important festive days. etc. There are many positive things to be encouraged, so the modules should focus on that, instead of negative things – “don’t do this”, “don’t do that” statements that irritates people.
I think there govt or relevant bodies have a role to play. We cannot leave everyone to do things as they like – this creates problem as one lives in a community and have to adhere to society norms. For example, imagine a person building a shrine in the house compound and having prayers (loud) day (5AM) and night(11PM). Of course he has religious beliefs, but at the expense of other people’s privacy, sleep, and happiness? No God would accept that prayer since the person is sinning against fellow human beings, that my opinion.
We cannot let religious organisation like MHS to intefere in marriage courses if gov make it compulsory.
If one look at non mulsim marriage registration application form they have one category called “uparaca perkahwinan di kuil,geraja dan persatuan….the word persatuan here not only applies to religious organisation like MHS but also non religious organisation like malaysian dravidian kalazgam “MDK”
Many people are not aware but Gov has approved few of the MDK officials to become “pendaftar perkahwinan” as well which means they can conduct wedding ceremony and register the marriage according to malaysian law…indians surely knows whats the ideology differences between MHS and MDK.
Now if our gov come up with the idea to make marriage course compulsory for non muslims they should not only look forward to organisation like MHS to give their input….its not fair
MDK also conduct “sirthiruthe kalyanam” they are also involved in marriage process….they have non religious views on marriage which fights for gender equality according to periyar philosophy
If gov want to introduce marriage courses for non muslim it should only cover on topic like what u say above…..managing finance,malaysian family law,divorce law,property inheritance and child act.
It should be general things which deals with common law………..religious organisation shouldnt come into the picture if gov let them to intervene other organisaton also will demand gov to listen to them.
So im stronlgy objecting religious organisation to intervene…..we cannot look marriage only from religious point of view.
MP…you got that right. The last thing we should do is to get the religious bodies manipulating the modules to push their own agendas. I am sorry but in my view MHS hardly has the capability or the credibility. So I agree, the module should be formulated by experts. However, the MCCBCHST should be given the opportunity verify the content along with other related NGOs (not every one of them).
But getting an alignment among the various religious bodies would be difficult since they have their own agenda.
2 non muslim malaysian citizens who are above 21 years old can get married in any jabtan pendaftaran negara ofiice if they fill up the nessecery forms and after 3 weeks of “bantahan period” brought along 2 adults who are also malaysian citizen (above 21 years old) as witness.
Where do religion come here??…….This is how malaysian law conduct non muslim marriage.
We are secular nation…..Religious organisation got nothing to do in marriage, in that case why gov must drag religious organisation into marriage courses.
Officials from Kementerian pembangunan wanita,keluarga dan masyarakat is the right party who need to formulate and conduct marriage course for non muslims not MHS or MCCBCHST.
Dragging and look forward to religious organisation for every solution will only lead to severe consequences
Tamils/Hindus in general have strong family fundamentals by culture/tradition . So a Tamilan can teach the gov on how to govern family instead of the other way round . BUT the problem is that in current modern society the younger generation is deviating from values . During a visit , an Indian doctor told me that ‘abortion’ cases among indian girls are in rise nowadays (wht in the hell the parents doing??? busy with tamil serials ??) . So the ‘values’ loosing grip .
So i’d welcome such courses for non-malays as well especially for current generation . I’d also agree it should be handled by MHS/MCCBCHST independantly .
VJ
At least we agree on something at last…
I wish I could share with you some of the stories of Indian school kids these days that were related to me by my teachers/lecturers relatives. I bet that you would find the stories unbelievable…
Hard drinking, partying and recreational drug taking among Indian gals is also an increasingly worrying problem.
The solution is simple…the quality of parenting can prevent much of this problem. The quality of parenting has dropped. Some parents are concerned but just lack the necessary skills and knowledge. I have seen kids of decent people behaving in a most astrocious way. In some cases it is due to parents’ overfocus on materialistic pursuit.
That is why I am pro-compulsory marriage course for non-Muslims.