DALAT: Forty-one couples attended a marriage course at Dalat Community Hall here yesterday. Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah who officiated at the event, said marriage and family are the main structure in society. She added that a marriage creates a family which is a basic social unit upon which society is established. “A harmonious marriage does not happen by accident.
Concerted efforts and high dedication, among other things, are required from both parties in ensuring a successful and harmonious marriage,” said Fatimah. She revealed that studies had shown that a happy marriage was associated with better health and longer lifespan.
Fatimah, who is also Dalat assemblywoman, praised the participants as she believed that the course would help them in strengthening and enriching their marriage. She said the course contained four important and critical things which were effective communication, settling conflicts, power of forgiving, and love in action. “In 2017, the number of marriages decreased compared to 2016.”
Fatimah revealed that data from the Statistics Department showed that marriages among Muslims decreased by 6.1 percent while non-Muslims by 1.8 percent. Touching briefly on divorce, she said most cases occurred among those aged between 30 and 34 with statistics showing that of 6,901 divorce cases last year, 2,971 (43 percent) were those within that age range. She added that financial problem was the main reason for divorce among non-Muslims in the country, while other factors included lack of understanding, career, infidelity and irresponsibility among the spouse.
During the function, Fatimah presented Endowment Fund Sarawak (EFS) to three recipients and annual government grant to another three recipients. The course was organised by the ministry’s Women and Family Department in collaboration with Alpha Malaysia Sarawak. Since 2014, 18 courses in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese have been organised involving 829 participants.
OYA
