It was a bit bemusing to read the feature article by The Star's Lisa Goh. I'm surprised that people think it is a new trend. Because it has been going on for at least 5 years, if not more.
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| Ever wondered what 5 year's of divorce files for one court house looks like? |
In 2011 I had the opportunity to work with the Kuching Court House. One of the many things I did was to go through 5 years worth of divorce files. In between mail order brides, shotgun marriages, conversion to Islam by one of the spouses, and husband beatings by the wife, there were people, pretty much at retirement age, filing for divorce.
And they were not small numbers. I would say proportionally it is about the same rate of marriages being dissolved by conversion to Islam by one spouse.
What I found interesting was that they were largely mutual divorces. They were relatively simple, with no Issues (read: dependent children), little sign of the court needing to intervene with property division, and in one case I saw the couple walked into court, did the formalities in 5 minutes, and shook hands before leaving in separate cars. I've seen business transactions with more drama.
What I found interesting were their marriage certificates. A few were Brooke era certificates. The majority were married under the Chinese Marriage Ordinance or the Native Customary Marriage ordinance. But a surprising number had no marriage certificates, with only sworn affidavits.
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