On Pointe: When The Law Interrupts Love

By: Natalie Shobana Ambrose

theSun, Malaysia (pg 14) November 14, 2013

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/columns/onpointe

'Aint' no mountain high enough, I will swim the deepest ocean, go through fire for you, catch a grenade for love, pluck the sun, moon and stars just to be with you.'

Ahh ... love is a many splendour thing that makes people sing of such grand promises. If only it were that easy, legally.

Malaysians are pretty accustomed to inter-racial, inter-religious marriages. It's part of our heritage of living in a country with diverse people, and thanks to globalisation intercontinental love stories are not uncommon here either but for some reason our laws have not caught up with the times.

Once the wedding outfits are dry-cleaned and set aside, the reality of living as a foreign, non-citizen spouse in Malaysia hits hard. What is meant to be the honeymoon period might turn out into a bit of a nightmare.

While our immigration regulations may look clear on paper, many foreign spouses have been given the run-around with regards to employment and for many obtaining Permanent Residency status can take decades. The whole process is complicated and not clear cut.

This makes it very difficult for families in this predicament. The cost of living is ever increasing and not many can afford to live on a single income. Without the proper documentation, qualified foreign spouses of Malaysians will not be able to find employment.

We are just talking about basic employment. What about using their talents and skills to place them in the right jobs.

For a country with a skill deficit, trying to contain its brain-drain problem, it would work in our interest to speed up such employment approvals. Wouldn't giving qualified people, already living in the country the right to work (quicker) one part of the solution?

The longer people have to wait and the more obstacles in place, only makes it easier to leave for other countries that would welcome them with open arms.

If the excuse is the outflow of currency, well really we're already one of the top three countries for illicit money outflow. It can't get much worse by giving foreign spouses the right to work. After all these spouses are staying here spending the money they earn on their families living on our soil.

Now, the issues become a lot more appalling for a female non-citizen spouse. While Malaysia is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), for some reason, these foreign wives of Malaysian men, need to get permission from their husband to work here.

It is a mandatory requirement that the Malaysian husband grant his wife permission to work. Permission? I mean aren't we living in the 21st century?

Permanent residency applications are made by the Malaysian spouse and the application is withdrawn when the Malaysian spouse dies or the marriage becomes estranged.

While the home minister has the discretion to approve such cases, a more clear cut timeframe for PR applications should be in place because there are other complications that arise.

While non-citizen spouses hold PR status, they are charged double for hospitalisation in government hospitals, yes even to deliver their Malaysian children.

It is a sad state of affairs and there is more from difficulty in opening a bank account to access to religious facilities. Even getting a credit card requires a RM10,000 deposit.

While we applaud raising the minimum property purchase price by foreigners to RM 1 million, it also means that the unemployed non-citizen wife or husband of a Malaysian would now have to struggle to jointly own property with their spouse.

Add to this the vulnerability of foreign spouses to domestic violence or divorce. A foreign spouse is not allowed to renew the Long Term Social Visit Pass without the presence of the Malaysian spouse at the immigration office.

Imagine if there is abuse going on, our laws have forced these spouses to remain in a vulnerable and dangerous situation with the only alternative of leaving the country all together. What happens if there are children involved?

We are doing a great disservice to ourselves with such legal disparities. Such policies need to be reviewed and not at the discretion of the officer in charge but on a higher level and with groups like the Foreign Spouses Support Group, Malaysia who have first-hand experience of the issues mentioned.

Our laws need to work for the people, recognising that family is important and looking after the people who live here for years. If it has been so easy to give away identity cards as been highlighted by the recent RCI on Project IC, surely we can do better for spouses of Malaysians and their families.

Natalie believes Malaysia not only suffers from brain drain but also love drain because of such unaccommodating policies.

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