The AMLA Amendments - Association of Muslim Professionals

Cover Story
KARYAWAN
AMLA:
Time
for
Sweeping
Changes
Yang Razali Kassim
6 SINCE ITS promulgation in 1966, Singapore’s main
piece of legislation for Muslims – the Administration of
Muslim Law Act (AMLA) – has gone through three major
amendments. While all of them were eventually accepted
by the community, they were not really received without
apprehension. The most recent change, just passed by
Parliament on 17 November 2008, can however be said to
have the easiest passage.
Is this a sign that the Muslim community is increasingly
at ease with the legislative framework that affects it most
closely Or does this indicate that the national leadership has
become more sophisticated in winning support for changes
to AMLA Or is this a sign of the community’s resignation to
the inevitability of change
I would regard the first two as positive for the community.
What we should be worried about is when the community
is resigned to changes, for it belies a sense of detachment
or a tidak apa attitude. Fortunately, all the amendments
to AMLA over the past three decades have been wellintentioned.
So why should there be undercurrents of
concern in some areas when all the AMLA changes are
essentially good for the community
The Amendments
AMLA was introduced a year after separation from Malaysia,
to provide the legislative umbrella for policies to administer
various aspects of Muslim life, including marriages, divorce
and inheritance matters. Two years later, in 1968, the Islamic
Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) was formed as a
statutory body to manage the religious and social welfare of
Muslims in Singapore.
The first major amendment came in 1999 in response to
changing circumstances. Manifesting the stresses from
a modern industrialised society, there was a growing
trend in Muslim divorces which the community was not
sufficiently equipped to handle. So AMLA was amended
to allow the enforcement of Syariah Court orders in the
District Courts – so that recalcitrant ex-husbands would
not abandon their post-divorce responsibilities. Yet, the
community worried that the amendment could erode the
standing of the Syariah Court, which was, of course, not
the intention. In 2005, another round of amendments was
introduced, this time to help strengthen the capacity of
MUIS. As a result, MUIS is now in a better standing.
The 2008 changes, in a way, continued to address the same
shortcomings in the community’s superstructure – so as to
ensure that AMLA remains constantly relevant to the lives of
Singapore Muslims. The problem of divorce is still a bugbear and
needs to be tackled decisively through the law. The preventive
strategy was to raise the marrying age for Muslim couples from
16 to 18 – to stem rising divorces from premature marriages.