The recent proposal by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to amend the Child Act 2001 to ban caning of children had stirred quite a bit of debate among Malaysians.

Although the ministry has come out to clarify that the proposal was in general to outlaw all acts of physical and emotional violence against children, I have found public discussion on the issue to be a healthy one.

In fact, the government should adopt a public consultation process for all laws that the government proposes, so that Malaysians will have a chance to give their feedback before the bills for such laws are tabled in Parliament for debate.

And, sufficient time should be given for such public discussions because any law passed will have an impact on our society and as such, the people’s views must be taken into consideration.

Kudos to the government for updating the Child Act, but please stay on focus

Fundamentally, I applaud the government’s effort to improve on the Child Act 2001, already a 14-year-old piece of legislation. It is time for the government to review its provisions in accordance with the current standard of human rights and children’s rights.

However, the focus on caning, especially in a pedagogical context at home or in the school, is definitely misguided. While I agree that there are other ways to nurture a child, and that caning is, at best, an outdated method, a ban on caning only seeks to protect children against their parents or bona fide guardians. Such law is mala fide, to say the least.

If the government is serious about the protection of children and minors, it makes more sense to protect them against the predators at large, not to protect them against their mothers or fathers or teachers.

So, why not ban child marriage?

For instance, there have been urgings by civil society for the government to ban child marriage. In the 2000 population and housing census, it was recorded that 6,800 children under the age of 15 were stated as married.

If anything, we should protect our children against underage marriage, which not only robs them of a healthy childhood but also subjects them to enormous emotional, physical, and psychological harms.

Why not protect our children against sexual predators instead? Or, how about protecting our children against sexual predators?

Do you know that every day in Malaysia, there are at least 10 reported cases of rape and half of the victims are girls below 16 years old? Advocacy groups estimate that only one in 10 cases was reported. The statistics are frightening. This is what we should protect our children against!

Various civil society groups as well as legislators have called for the enactment of the Sexual Offenders Registration Act.

Heavier prison sentences and even whipping do not seem to reduce the number of sexual offences in our country, some of which have resulted in death of the victims.

Therefore, it is time to implement such a registry to prevent former offenders from having easy access to potential victims or vulnerable groups, such as children.

A law that is eight years overdue?

Such a measure is not something new. Around the world, countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and even South Africa have implemented similar preventive strategies.

Actually, it is not something new to Malaysia too. As early as 2007, the Bar Council, together with the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry brought up discussion on this issue.

In 2010, both PDRM and the ministry came out together to iron out the mechanism for a Sexual Offenders Registration Act. Yet, despite the many years of discussion on this pressing matter, no bill on such a law has been tabled in Parliament, until today.

The purpose of such a law is to track and monitor former sexual offenders for a specific period, after serving their jail terms, so that, without infringing on their personal liberty, limits can be set on their access to potential victims in situations which may lead to the vulnerability of the victims. For example, they may be prevented from getting a job in kindergartens or schools, or becoming taxi drivers.

For better or worse, in the United States version, one can even go to the Internet to check whether a particular offender is living in one’s neighbourhood, even to the extend of getting updates on the movements of the offender moving in or out from the area. Something to discuss further, perhaps in the context of our own country.

Ultimately, the registry of sexual offenders should serve as a preventive measure to further help check on sexual crimes in our country.

These are some of the critical measures that our government should consider in its effort to review laws such as the Child Act 2001.

CLARENCE TAN is currently reading law at Brickfields Asia College and is also an intern with Steven Sim, the MP for Bukit Mertajam.