Voon Lee Shan
MIRI : Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan has called upon lawmakers to make it a crime for men who fail to provide for their families after divorce.
“It is a pitiful state because many times I have come across women and children who had been chased out of their houses because the women could not afford rent or instalment repayments,” he said in a press statement issued yesterday.
According to him, the law is weak in protecting women and children after divorce, with the ex-wife often forced to accept a small sum for child maintenance under the divorce settlement.
“The ex-wife just wants to move on with her life. To prolong court process would also add to cost and legal fees for the lawyers. This is not cheap.
“Despite the court order, many times I come across husbands failing to maintain their wives and children after divorce. Many of them are rich, living in huge mansions with big business with their new families, eating in restaurants and driving flashy cars. They forget their ex-wives and children living with the ex-wives. This is a serious social ill,” he said.
Voon, who is a lawyer by profession, added that it was also ‘disgusting’ that some wealthy men and those at high places in society, including politicians and ministers, claimed to be poor and sick and thus, unable to provide for their ex-wives.
“The court may just believe them if the wife is reluctant to do so or does not know how to dispute these things in court. To dispute would further prolong mental stress to the ex-wife.
“I hereby call all lawmakers to plug this loophole by making it a crime, with hefty fines and jail terms, for (men) failing to maintain their ex-wives and children after divorce, and to allow seizure of the men’s properties to satisfy the maintenance for the ex-wives and children, in the event of default of maintenance,” he pointed out.
Voon said the ex-wife might find it difficult to have the court order enforced for the benefit of herself and the children.
“The ex-wife would have to engage lawyers and go back to court to seek another court order to enforce the maintenance or judgement. This is not an easy task and it involves money – it is costly,” he said.
Voon added that that the cases that he had dealt with mostly involved ex-wives who did not have the means to engage lawyers and to pay for court.