MAJLIS Adat Istiadat Sarawak (MAIS) has taken the first step to formulate a law on customary marriages in Sarawak.
Minister in the Premier’s Department Datuk John Sikie Tayai said this proposed law, among others, would include provisions for solemnisation of marriage and registration of marriage.
“There would be specific provisions regulating underage marriage,” he said when delivering his ministerial winding up speech at the state legislative assembly (DUN) sitting here today (May 22).
He was responding to Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong’s statement last week, requesting the Sarawak government to take immediate action to tighten existing laws and policies to eradicate child marriage.
She said that “customary marriages lack specific regulations, making rural children particularly vulnerable to early marriages without penalty” and requested MAIS to secure the consent of all community leaders to raise the minimum marriage age to 18 by July 2023.
Apart from that, Sikie said the Native Marriage Electronic System, commonly known as NAMES, has upgraded its platform and capabilities into a newer and better version called NAMES version 2 or NAMESv2.
He said NAMESv2 will go-live by June this year which will enable the public to perform Adat Marriage Pre-Registration application online through the Sarawak Government official portal using SarawakID.
NAMESv2 also provides the system administrators with detailed and precise records of registered Adat Marriage and Adat Divorce which is often requested by relevant government ministries and agencies to formulate governmental policies and programmes.
Meanwhile, on the status of the Interpretation (Amendment) Ordinance 2022 which was passed by the Dewan in February last year, he said, the conditions and requirements for the recognition of a person who is a citizen and natural born child of a person of a race indigenous to Sarawak as a native of Sarawak as stipulated in the Ordinance have been drafted and discussed among the relevant government agencies.
“However, due to the importance, complexity of this matter, its impact on the people of Sarawak and to safeguard the special position and rights of the natives of Sarawak as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, it was decided that further deliberation and review of the proposed conditions and requirements be made to ensure the said proposal is suitable, reasonable and practical.
“Most importantly, (that) the new conditions and requirements would not cause inconvenience to the people of Sarawak before the GPS Government gazettes the enforcement of the Ordinance,” he explained.
