KUALA LUMPUR, August 1 — Malaysia’s highest court must steer clear of sexist laws when it decides if tycoon Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng can appeal a lower court ruling which said his divorce proceedings should not be heard in Malaysia, according to the lawyer for his estranged wife.
In a divorce petition filed in London last year, Khoo’s wife Pauline Chai is seeking half of his fortune, which at £500 million (RM2.75 billion), could be the largest divorce settlement in UK history. She stands to get much less if the case is heard in Malaysia.
The 66-year-old former beauty queen, who was Miss Malaysia in 1969, is pushing for the divorce case to be heard in the UK, while Khoo — who runs international investment holding company Malayan United Industries Bhd — wants it heard in Malaysia.
A Malaysian High court ruled that the divorce case could be heard in the country but the Court of Appeal overturned that decision.
Chai’s English lawyer Ayesha Vardag noted that Malaysia’s Court of Appeal had described the law — upon which the High Court had based its decision that Chai’s domicile followed her husband’s in Malaysia — as the “last barbaric relic of wife’s servitude”.
“It is extraordinary to those in the free world, who expect equality and independence for men and women before the law, to learn that a civilised country such as Malaysia still has laws that make women subservient to their husbands,” Vardag said in a statement today.
“After the decision in the Court of Appeal, I welcomed the fact that our sister country Malaysia was also moving to recognise autonomy for women. I now hope that the Malaysian Federal Court shares the same disposition to embrace progress and equality,” the divorce lawyer added.
Vardag also said that her client was seeking to appeal the Court of Appeal’s refusal to halt proceedings in Malaysia until the conclusion of the English proceedings, where a 10-day hearing is scheduled to start in about two months.
The Star reported the Court of Appeal last April as setting aside the High Court’s ruling that Khoo’s divorce petition could be filed in Malaysia.
Justice David Wong also reportedly ordered the case to go back to trial.
The local daily quoted Chai’s Malaysian lawyer K. Shanmuga as saying that the English courts should have jurisdiction as his client’s domicile was not in Malaysia since she has resided in the UK since the 1980s.
Chai had cited unreasonable behaviour in her divorce petition against Khoo, who is Malaysia’s 40th richest man according to the Forbes 2012 list of Malaysia’s wealthiest.
She has also reportedly accused the “very controlling” retail and hotel tycoon of rationing her food and forbidding her from leaving their house without his permission.
