Welcoming Speech by Chair at BC FLC Seminar "Avoiding the Quicksand of Divorce" 26.1.2019

A warm welcome to our distinguished guests

YA Dato’ Lee Swee Seng, High Court Judge,

Judge Foo Tuat Yien, former Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore and Former Principal District Judge, Family Court,

Our senior practitioners Mr. Balwant Singh Sidhu, Mr. Kan Weng Hin, Ms Foo Yet Ngo 

Ms Malathi Das, Dr. Diana Lea Baranovich and moderator, Ms Vicky Alahakone.

I thank you all for your generosity in taking your time to share your ideas and expertise.

We are here today because we are connected by a shared interest in, and commitment to family justice. Today’s seminar on “Avoiding the Quicksand of Divorce” is organised by the Bar Council’s FLC and is the first event to kick-off 2019.

Family law is about people, about emotions, about families who have been shattered by  emotional trauma affecting the most intimate areas of their lives and which may sometimes cross over into areas of family violence, mental health, child protection, and, sometimes, criminal law. We then struggle with the gendered dimensions of these laws, eg marital rape, child marriage.

Because family law is different, the family justice system and the practice of family law must also be different. Family justice should be about insulating children from the effects of divorce and helping parties navigate the legal terrain, moving towards a path of healing, restoration, and positive transformation.

The family lawyer’s role is so important. We are not just handling a case, what we do has an impact on the lives of these families and in turn, impacts our society and community.  

The effect of divorce especially acrimonious ones, are destabilizing and debilitating to children.

We are required to display sensitivity and understanding. Towards this goal, we need to  acquire and build on our competencies, in-depth knowledge of the various complex legal issues that may arise. For example, cross-border jurisdictional disputes, trans-national property transactions, surrogacy and for me, more difficult, family violence, estrangement and alienation of children, mental illness, substance addiction, just to name a few.

I've read that in England for example, the FDAC Family Drug & Alcohol Courts was established to address parental substance abuse through judicial monitoring and multi-disciplinary therapeutic intervention.

Family practitioners and the family justice professionals are exposed to a high degree of violence and harm every day. This adds to the stress of our work and an area which not many speak about and requires some support.

So, as practitioners we need have emotional resilience and a lot of common sense. The emotional rewards are there when you have helped a family to quickly resolve and heal or protect a child, the impact is beyond just that one case, but spreads out to the community.

My hope is for an ongoing transformation of the Malaysian family justice system, for  specialised family courts that are problem-solving, harnessing other support systems that children and parents need. In this regard, I look forward to learning more about the Singapore experience.

Finally, my sincere gratitude to the organising committee, Alex Tan, Emelia Van Burle, Debbie Wong, Rajes and Florence who have selflessly volunteered their time to make today a reality.

I wish you all a fruitful and intellectually stimulating day.

Goh Siu Lin
Chairperson
Bar Council Family Law Committee
2018/2019