KOTA KINABALU, July 3 — The Sabah government has formed a task force under the Law and Native Affairs Ministry that will be responsible for drafting the amendment of laws to end child marriages in the state.
Assistant Minister Jannie Lasimbang said they were hoping to be able to present the draft to the state Cabinet soon and table it during the upcoming state legislative assembly sitting in August.
“The task force will discuss and follow up with the legal amendments, oversee the development and implementation of action plan and continue to strategise on this issue.
“This is a multi-stakeholder, inter-ministerial matter and we will continue consulting and obtaining commitment and the required support from all parties,” said Lasimbang when speaking to reporters after attending a workshop on the issue jointly organised by her ministry and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) here.
The Kapayan assemblyman and Sabah DAP women’s wing chief said that the work to stop the practice of marriages of those under 18 did not stop with the law, and there was much to be done following the amendment.
Aside from law and policies, the other key drivers on the issue were parenting and access to education, as well as lack of comprehensive sex education in schools.
She said that although feedback from the ground previously was in favour of ending such practices, there were still many who believed that getting married young was the solution to poverty and unplanned pregnancies among others.
Earlier during the workshop, records taken from the Shariah Courts showed that there were some 150 applications for marriage from those under 18 years in 2015, 166 in 2016 and 121 in 2017. There are no figures recorded from the native courts.
Meanwhile, Unicef deputy representative in Malaysia Radoslaw Rhezak lauded Sabah for being among the first states in Malaysia to set the minimum marriage age to 18 but reminded it was not the ultimate objective.
He said that there was still the challenge of changing the mindset of the people to reject the mindset of child marriage.
“Law reform is not the goal. To win the hearts and the minds of the people is the real challenge … the goal is to eliminate child marriages from Sabah, and to provide solutions and a support network for the child instead.
“How do we change the minds of people, to believe that waiting after 18 [for marriage] is better for the children, economy and the culture?,” he said.
Rzehak said it was an important but also a difficult subject especially because it touches on traditional and cultural aspects.
“I cannot say thank you enough to you for the initiative. We very much support you because Sabah can be a flagship for the entire country to look at and follow,” he said.
