EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s find ways to resolve domestic disputes

Let’s find ways to resolve domestic disputes HAVE we become strangers to dialogue and counselling in times of disputes?

This combination used to produce wonders in conflict resolution.

However, it seems dialogue and counselling is no longer working among many families.

This is the main question, which needs answers, nowadays.

There has been a surge in cases, involving warring couples, bitter former lovers, who have fallen out, and feuding family members. Over the years, elders and close relatives would easily deal with such matters but now they seem to be losing the battle. 

Or, could it be the case of a nation which is slowly losing its way?

Nowadays, presiding officers at the civil courts dotted around the country seem to have assumed the new role of uncles and grannies.

Matters that are brought before civil courts’ magistrates are strange and delicate.

To say the civil courts have been turned into counselling institutions would be an understatement.

In fact, they have become a rendezvous of counselling sessions where some get sanctuary, after being granted either protection, or peace orders. There are also some parents who only assume their fatherly roles, after being ordered to pay child support.

Most cases handled here involve family disputes, jilted lovers who cannot let go and those stalking their ex-lovers.

Insecure lovers have also flooded to the civil courts for legal recourse after failing to settle their disputes on their own. It’s also sad to note how these courts are now overwhelmed with domestic issues, which can be handled at family level. On a daily basis, we run such stories involving feuding family members, who cannot resolve issues on their own.

We ensure that we dedicate space for such bizarre stories of domestic disputes in our paper to try and play our part in exposing those who are doing the wrong things. 

It’s never about shaming people, as claimed by some readers, but reminding them of how they have lost their plot, in the hope that they will do things the right way, going forward.

The majority of the issues brought to court are just petty.

So silly are some of these issues, it’s clear that many of them can be resolved easily at family level.

In most cases, it will just be a matter which requires family members to swallow their pride, and stop exposing their deep secrets to the world.

By exposing such matters, we are simply playing our role as a paper to inform the public.

It is also our wish that the same readers will also learn one or two things from their peers who are shamed in court by their lovers.

Warring parties should find each other before they come to court.

There are some challenges which we can handle on our own, without the need to go and ask the courts for a helping hand.

The first thing we should do is to respect each other and, where we have challenges, find a way to resolve our issues.