KUCHING, Jan 23: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan calls for all lawmakers to address the loophole in spousal maintenance awarded by the court in divorce settlement cases to ensure for better protection of the women and their children.
According to Voon in a press statement today, the current law is weak in protecting women and children after divorce and usually when there is a divorce settlement or divorce granted by the court, maintenance to wife and children from male spouses are low because the wife would normally be forced to accept a very low sum for maintenance for herself and her children.
He noted, the wives whom he dealt with most of the time, did not have the means to engage lawyers and to pay for court fees.
“As such, I hereby call on all lawmakers to plug this loophole by making it a crime with hefty fines and jail terms for failing to maintain wife and children after divorce, and to allow the seizure of the husband’s property to satisfy the maintenance for wife and children in the event of default of maintenance,” he said.
Voon explained that despite a court order, he had many times come across cases with husbands failing to maintain their wives and children after divorce.
He said many of them were rich, living in huge mansions with big businesses with new families, eating in restaurants and driving flashy cars.
“They forget their ex-wives and children. This is a serious social ill in society.
“The wives find it difficult to have the court order enforced for the benefit of herself and the children. The wife also has to engage a lawyer and go back to the court to seek another court order to enforce the maintenance or judgment. This is not an easy task and it involves money and is costly,” he added. –DayakDaily.
