Chen Peiling: Amendment to the Parents Law Amendment

Congress will debate the amendments to the parental decree in the coming parliament.The amendment is proposed to further strengthen the mechanism, take care of the elderly parents who have been ignored by their children, while avoiding the abuse of the law and protecting the interests of their children.

Since its implementation in 1996, a total of nearly 2,500 applications have been received.The decree was amended for the first time in 2010, and the "mediation" strategy was added. After the implementation of the following year, the results were encouraged.About 90 % of the claims have been solved by mediation to avoid the deterioration of the relationship between parents and children.

Following the amendment of the parental decree 12 years ago, nine members of the People's Action Party, including me, formed a working group last year, and reviewed the decree again, hoping to further improve it.Xie Jianping, chairman of the Government Congress Social and Family Development Committee and Macin Baili Constituency, represented the group last month and submitted amendment in Congress.

The decree has been more than 10 years since the previous amendment. In addition, Singapore has faced changes in population aging and family structures. I think this review and amendment to the law should be both timely and meaningful.

Working group cooperation with action and family relations cooperation with the relationship between marriage and family relationships not only reviews cases and experiences accumulated for more than 20 years, but also launched a survey of thousands of people, and consults parents director, arbitral tribunal chairman and members, social workers, folk people, and people.Organization and public opinion.From this, we have some conclusions: First, the laws need to expand the scope of power, including adding non -money -based measures to eliminate the suspicion between parents and children, and encourage a family to reunite.We found that for some years, parents and children had a suspicion or losing contact for some reasons.The director office or arbitral tribunal should be given greater authority or flexibility to help these families break the mirror.

According to the law of the poor, the elderly who are placed in a welfare home or applying for staying in, if there are children, the director's office should be informed that if they do not have to agree, they will contact their children to mediate.Still unwilling to support it, at least try to restore contact.Of course, the director must first judge whether the parents have done their responsibilities, and the children are indeed capable of supporting their parents.Fortunately, there are not many people in this group of elderly parents.

The group originally considered whether to let the Director Division directly applies for maintenance on behalf of parents.After all, these parents have raised their children, and their children are not unable to.However, when starting a public consultation, some people are worried about whether this will deprive the parents' autonomy, or cause their children to hate their parents and make it clumsy.After the group repeatedly considers, it is believed that it is necessary to modify the law to maintain family values and give the director to contact their children.

In addition, some parents may break the family relationship due to their bad habits.According to the data of the arbitral tribunal, about 10 % of the cases are related to parents' gambling.In this case, it is understandable that children are unwilling to give alimony to promote bad behavior.Therefore, this modification will give the arbitral tribunal the right to issue non -money court orders or conditional approval for maintenance, such as compulsory parents to receive counseling.If you violate the order, the children will not be obliged to pay for maintenance.

Second, adult children who have been abused, ignored or abandoned by their parents should be better protected.

We found that even if these children grow up and live a seemingly normal life, they may not be able to get out of the shadow of trauma in growth.Once this group of children receive a notice from supporting their parents, some must also have to be a public church. Although they can prove that they have been hurt or their parents have not fulfilled their support, the whole process is undoubtedly re -exposed their scars.

For this reason, this amendment will be empowers the Parent's Directors to read the government archives to see if the applicant has a record of abuse of children.If there is a record, the applicant must prove that he has done his best to raise the responsibility and get the consent of the arbitral tribunal before he can apply for support.Without the approval of the arbitral tribunal, the affected children will not receive a notice.If there is no record, the support application must take the normal process to be fair to both parties.

Survey shows that most Chinese people support this modification and believe that it is not inevitable that nourishing their parents who have never taken care of themselves.After all, the emotion of nurturing must be compassionate first.

Third, the law must help the responsibility of raising, but parents who have been ignored in their later years should not be reduced to the tools of parents to deal with their children.

According to the observation of the director's office and the members of the arbitral tribunal, a small group of parents did not meet the conditions of the maintenance of the maintenance.

Therefore, the amendment will be given the power of arbitral tribunal, and the application will be rejected directly under certain circumstances.In order to ensure that the elderly parents who really need it will not follow, the amendment will clearly stipulate that this is limited to the applicant's original conditions, self -sufficient ability, children's proof that they have no support, or the application has been rejected by rejection.Four cases.

Moral cannot be trained through legislative

From a macro perspective, we need to think about the significance of families in the future society, and how the traditional values admired by Asian society change.

When I met the residents every week, I saw old residents who came from time to time to seek assistance.They struggled for clothing, food, housing, and transportation, but they were unwilling to ask their children.She once talked to an older resident, and she mentioned that the child's life was quite good.When I asked if her child had a relationship or gave her living expenses, she sorrowful to answer that the child had become a family. Raising the child was the responsibility of her parents. If the child was filial, she would spontaneously give her money.It is really distressed after listening to these words.Obviously, she actually hopes that her children will support her and care for her, but or because of dignity or love, she never asks for anything, but she only bear it by herself.

This resident is not the only case I have ever seen.Parliament colleagues have also seen similar cases.As the people of the people, we will do our best to help them solve the needs of life.However, I think that children should have expressed something that even if they cannot afford all their parents' living expenses, they should share part of their responsibilities.Otherwise, how can filial piety exist in this time?

Of course, moral values are not trained through legislation.Filial piety will not be caused by the law of supporting parents.However, the law can allow parents who should be helpful to be supported, so that families with bad relationships have the opportunity to reconcile, so that the society will reiterate the attention of family values, and to ensure that the children who have harmed the harm are fair.

This amendment is what we have accumulated from the experience of more than 20 years and gathered the wisdom of the public.Weighing the advantages and disadvantages, I believe that the revised decree will be more fair and can protect the parents who should be taken care of.

The author is Mai Bo's Single Single Establishment Selection

Review of members of the Law Law of the Parents