Stem divorce with polygamy

You cannot imagine the horror when I saw the headline of the newspaper. In today's edition of TODAY, a letter written by a Mr Lim Thiam Poh put forth the idea that polygamy will help stem divorce. He argues that its an age old tradition that should be revived. He says, "... allowing polygamy across all cultural groups does not mean it has to be encouraged - just because we allow the use of tobacco doesn't mean we advocate lighting up". He also claims that in monogamus unions, adultery is the LEADING cause of divorce. He also mentions that its men's natural tendency to stray and have more than one sexual companion.

This is my response. I'm not sure if this arose because of the recent remark made by our government that perhaps they need to step into areas of sex and procreation. While this suggestion of polygamy might try to solve some of the problems, I think it creates a whole load of backlash which does not solve the root problem but pretends to solve it at a superficical level but creating a bigger disaster in the process. Here is a challange to the family unit as a nucleus.

The solution of polygamy does not address the issue of unlimted wants. If a man can leave his wife for another, does polygamy ensure the he will not leave the 2 of them for another (we are assuming that polygamy stops at 2)? If a man has lost interest in the woman whom he pledges himself to and decides to divorce her, doesn't it make sense that he can still do that with 2 wives? What safeguard is there to prevent him for doign the same? I must agree that men have a natural tendency to stray. It is our weakness. But at the same time, lets not use that as a crutch. To plagerise a saying, "BE A MAN", face up to that challange and fight it, not bow down and complain its in my nature. Because its not. If polygamy was such an effective tool of preserving family units, then in my opinion, many civilized cultures wuold have natually adopted it as "natural". But in fact, thats not the case.

To me, the root problem is not how a man can be easily tempted by some other gorgerous chick. Its about the attititude towards the sactity of marriage. Somehow along the way, man has figured that its no longer important. The vows of "till death do us part" no longer mean anything. Its sad and that's one of the threats to the family unit nowadays, to be bombarded by silly suggestions tell us how we need to change the way the family unit is comprised.