KOTA KINABALU: Almost 90 per cent of marriages involving Indonesian couples in Sabah were contracted under religious law and regarded as not valid under civil law, said the republic’s consul-general here, Soepeno Sahid.
Because of this, he urged all Indonesia couples in the state who had married under religious law to register their marriage with the Indonesan consulate here.
Soepeno said although a couple’s marriage was valid in the eyes of their religion, it was not certified as valid by the Indonesian civil authority as long as they had not register it under the republic’s civil law.
He was speaking to reporters after opening a session to create awareness on the issue among Indonesian working in the state-cum-marriage registration exercise held at the consulate.
“This is the second time we are organising this mass marriage registration exercise for Indonesian nationals who got married under religious law some years ago,” Soepeno said.
He said the registration was important in order to further protect the rights of those who got married under religious law.– BERNAMA