{
  "id": 5678261,
  "title": "Tan Cheng Lock desak perlindungan hak wanita, dedah cucu",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/tan-cheng-lock-desak-perlindungan-hak-wanita-dedah-cucu",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today-freemalays",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/bahasa/tempatan/2026/09/05/tan-cheng-lock-desak-perlindungan-hak-wanita-dedah-cucu"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Tan Cheng Lock, a prominent businessman and founding figure of Malaysia, advocated for women's rights before independence, according to his daughter, Tan Siok Choo. The MCA founder pushed for the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act before the country's independence, which required civil marriages to be registered and be monogamous to protect women's rights to the husband's estate. Chinese marriages, especially those based on tradition, were often complex with little written regulation on how to conduct them. They merely had to make offerings at the ancestral altar, declare their marriage, and be done with it, Siok Choo told FMT in a recent interview. Siok Choo, 73, explained to FMT after the launch of the biography \"One Country, One People: The Life and Legacy of Tun Tan Cheng Lock\" by co-author academic Heng Pek Koon. She expressed strong concern over the unfairness to women who could not claim their husbands' estate because of the lack of a documented marriage. She referred to the landmark \"Six Wives\" case in 1908 where six women accused a deceased man of being their husbands and sought a share of his estate. Siok Choo's father passionately championed the Civil Marriage Act, even remarrying after his first wife through this act. He also fought against the mui tsai system, a Chinese practice that enslaved poor Chinese girls into servitude, often resulting in physical abuse. The system was poorly protected, and Siok Choo's father played a significant role in the Ordinance of Mui Tsai 1932, which provided minimal legal protection.",
  "summary": "Tan Siok Choo kata pengasas MCA itu amat bimbang akan hak balu dan terkesan dengan amalan abdi 'mui tsai'.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Tan Cheng Lock pushed to protect women’s rights, says granddaughter",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/tan-cheng-lock-pushed-to-protect-womens-rights-says-granddaughter",
        "published": "2026-09-05T00:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}