Two non-government organisations today expressed their regret over a suggestion by a PAS state representative to promote polygamy to help single mothers.

The NGOs - Sisters in Islam and All Women's Action Scoiety - said that marriages will not be the solution for the economic condition of these single mothers.

"Single mothers can earn their living with the existence of adequate social support", said Nora Murat and Manohari Subramaniam from the two NGOs in a statement.

They suggested that the relevant authorities should look at the existing limited social support accorded to single mothers as at present these mother are constrained by numbers of day care centres or employment opportunities that allow flexi-working hours.

"Government and employers should be more realistic and sympathetic towards their plight," they added.

On Wednesday Terengganu state assemblyman for Paka, Saiful Bahri Mamat made the suggestion to promote polygamy amongst single mothers while debating the state's 2004 budget speech.

He had rejected the state's proposal to teach computer knowledge to these single mothers so that they can earn a living with these extra skills.

Stating that polygamy was allowed under Islam, Saiful said "this is better than teaching them to use computers, which will be difficult for them to learn".

There are more than 4,000 single mothers in Terengganu.

Lack of enforcement

The NGOs stressed that marriage was not a relationship based on financial needs, adding that by launching such a campaign as proposed by Saiful, single mothers will only be subjected to further stigmatisation.

They also added that both the syariah and civil courts should act more realistically when giving maintenance orders to these single mothers.

"We have received many complaints from women on inadequate maintenance granted which resulted in them ending up shouldering additional burden. The order should reflect the current economic needs of the children or wife as provided in the law."

Nora and Manohari also laid the blame on the lack of enforcement of maintenance orders, which adds extra burden to the single mothers.

They said that better enforcement of the maintenance order will ensure that children are well taken care.

"Fathers should be made responsible to comply with these orders and there should not be any delay in enforcement. In other countries there is a system where the government will pay maintenance to the mothers and then pursue the fathers for payments."