As I read today’s Berita Harian, I can’t help but to empathise those faithful wives out there whose husbands left to hook up another one from Batam. There was this particular story that left quite an impression on me. The man, has a stable job earning a 5-digit salary, owns two luxurious cars, a nice abode housing his wife and four of his kids who are, mind you, graduates from the universities who once achieved prestigious awards. They were the ones who occupied pages on the newspapers with news of their success. And now, they are the ones who conteng arang on their parents’ faces.
Graduates from well-known universities do not promise you good behaviour and moral etiquette. What’s unpleasant to hear, is that they’re socialising beyond expectation, drinking, smoking, going from girl to girl. Whatever you can associate bad behaviour with. Obviously, I was talking about the sons. I have no idea what the daughters are up to, if they even have one.
Well, the main focus is on the man. The man of the family whom we have high respects for. The one who provide for us, clothe us, and feed us. As for this particular family, he too is the one who destroyed every dream of a happy family his wife had. He started off with ‘outstations’ to Batam on weekends, too frequent that it intrigued his wife’s attention. She was never the kind to check on him for I believe, she trusted him wholeheartedly. And so one unlucky day, she received an e-mail from her dear husband saying that he is marrying another one in Batam. Ouch. That one liner crushed her heart into infinite pieces. When probed further, his reason was: Every morning when I go to work, you hardly make breakfast. For the many years that they wed, breakfast was not once an issue. Why it is now?
According to the news report, the wife shared that her husband’s life savings left with a mere hundreds of dollars as compared to before, where he had hundreds and thousands of dollars. Now, his CPF money too is being used up.
Why oh why do men treat us ladies like this? I’m not talking about all men, please be informed and neither am I saying that all of us women are angelic with the pretty halo above our heads. It is just disappointing, having to read and hear such painful experiences. What do the Batam women have that we Singaporeans don’t? Why do they have the heart to cause a marriage to falter? Is it the money? Like the famous debate topic: Money is the root of all evil. Indeed, it is.
