Terengganu to send 40 jaded couples on 2nd honeymoon to ‘rekindle lost spark’

Terengganu's government hopes to give broken marriages a second wind and stave off divorces in the state. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS

Forty disaffected couples in Terengganu are headed for a state-mandated vacation packed with marriage counselling, motivational talks and other activities in the hopes of saving their marriages.

The local government hopes to give broken marriages a second wind, to stave off the rise in the number of divorces in the Malaysian state.

The couples on the aptly named Second Honeymoon Programme will be sent on a trip for three days and two nights to an undisclosed “interesting location”, said the state’s Welfare, Women’s Development, Family and National Unity Committee chairman Hanafiah Mat on Friday.

“Most of the married couples who have been selected for the programme have been married for more than five years,” said Mr Hanafiah.

“We want to help them save their marriage and help them rekindle the lost spark in their marriage through the programme.”

He added that the government decided to revive the programme after it contributed to solving the marital issues of over 60 per cent of the previous attendees.

The programme, organised by the state’s Family Development Foundation, is a rerun of a similar initiative in 2009 that sent squabbling couples to beach or island resorts off Terengganu, where they could seek marriage counselling, Agence France-Presse reported.

The eastern coastal state also held weekend seminars to help married couples maintain intimacy and “get their partner’s libido going again”.

The number of single mothers in Terengganu increased by about 10,000 over a three-year period, Bernama reported.

The Parti Islam SeMalaysia-controlled state recorded 6,565 divorce cases involving Muslims from 2020 to October 2021.

A Terengganu executive council member in 2021 cited a lack of appreciation and understanding of Islam, financial issues and social media influence as factors that led to these divorces.

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