WRITTEN ARTICLE ANALYSIS
TITLE - CHILD MARRIAGES IN MALAYSIA: REALITY,
RESISTANCE AND RECOURSE
FACULTY
: FACULTY OF ACCOUNTANCY
PROGRAMME
: BACHELOR IN ACCOUNTANCY (AC220)
COURSE
: ELC501-ENGLISH FOR CRITICAL ACADEMIC
READING
CLASS
: NACAB2A
LECTURER
: MADAM NORLEZA ABDUL MANAN
GROUP MEMBERS
NURUL AZILA BINTI ALIAS
NOOR BAIZURA BINTI BAHARUDIN
STUDENT NUMBER
The article of “Child Marriages in Malaysia: Reality, Resistance and Recourse” written by Ooi Kok Hin
explores the overall issues of child marriage in Malaysia, especially the impact of the child marriage.
Child marriage is not a fringe issue in Malaysia, there are 17,959 application of child marriage between
years 2000 to 2015. Almost 10,240 from them are Muslims while the rest are non-muslims from
various state in Malaysia. Child marriage also referred to as early marriage, where physical, emotional
and social effect take place but the most common outcomes is the withdrawal of them from formal
education. At this age the girl are at risk of bearing children before their bodies are physically mature
for it. Lack of education limits girls’ option to improve their circumstances economically and having
better choice of education and jobs. It’s also increase the domestic and sexual abuse. Malaysian
Islamic authority also declared that the child marriage was unhealthy practice that has deep
detrimental impact on the child’s health and psychology.
There are few types of supporting detail that the author uses in bringing this child marriage issue.
Most of the author claim are more from facts, its opinion and point of view. The author had point out
the issue on the weakness of the legal system by the Shariah court in managing and approving the
child marriage application, where the approval for the marriage is being manipulated by the parents
in order to marry off their daughters. This statement supported by the data provided by Malaysian
Syariah Judiciary Department, or known as JKSM, on approval rate of the chid marriage, showing that
the approval rate is 80%. This support is objective as the author has used facts to show the approval
rate is at the higher side, and these facts consider real and verifiable.
Then, the author also highlight that child marriage is not a solution to pre-marital sex and social ills,
but in some cases, the child is punished twice by having to marry her rapist and by being deprived of
education, social mobility and economic opportunity. Child brides are prone to abuse and there have
been cases of child marriage ending abruptly in divorce after a short period, leaving the child with a
baby. The author also claims that this had led to polygamy case in certain districts in Malaysia,
referring to the statement of “Preliminary data in Selangor district seems to suggest a relationship
between the prevalence of child marriage and high instances of polygamy in certain districts”, where
its showing when the data expanded to include girls aged 16 and 20 years old, the higher possibility
for this young girls wedded as second, third or fourth wives to older mans who practicing polygamy.
The author has concluded that early invention and education can greatly pre-empt and reduce
statutory rape, child sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy and consequentially, child marriage.
International examples have demonstrated early invention (for example, mandatory education for
boys and girls to teach consent, how to say “NO”, how to react and report, and how to debunk rape
cultures is successful in reducing child sexual abuse and rape.
From the article, the author’s purposes to inform the reader about the statistic of child marriage in
Malaysia and the impact of child marriage especially towards the married children. The author also to
persuade everyone to play role in order to minimize the child marriage issue, for example, education
syllabus should include the information that sex with minors is criminal offence and mass media
should expose the abuse of the legal processes on the child marriage issue.
The author’s intended audience will be general public. The author use disapproving tone on this child
marriage issue, which the author does not agree if children married at their early age. This referring
to the statement of the author on the early intervention by related party are needed to prevent the
violent towards the child.
(652 words)