What Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar meant in Parliament on Tuesday was that non-Malays are not sensitive, thus fewer police reports are lodged on statutory rape cases.

He did not say that non-Malays are less sensitive to rape, a private secretary to Wan Junaidi, Wan Hamzah Wan Paie, said in a statement today.

According to Wan Hamzah, the deputy minister “never said” that non-Malays are less sensitive to underaged rape .

“All those words are from the interpretation by Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen. That is his interpretation of Wan Junaidi’s words, but they are not Wan Junaidi’s words,” he said.

Wan Junaidi’s exact words, as published in the Hansard , are:

“Actually, because Malays are so sensitive to cases of sex between youths, so reports had to be lodged. Others might be less sensitive to the matter so the numbers are acceptable, so what happens is more acceptable for the other parties.”

(Sebenarnya, oleh kerana orang Melayu sensitif sangat kepada kes-kes seks di antara belia ini, maka laporan mesti dibuat oleh pihak-pihak ini. Pihak lain mungkin kurang sensitif kepadanya maka nisbahnya dapat diterima, perkara yang berlaku itu boleh diterima oleh pihak-pihak lain.)

Further proof

Wan Hamzah’s statement also furnished further “proof” to back Wan Junaidi’s claim that non-Malays lodge less police reports on cases of underage rape, compared with Malays.

He said based on figures from the National Registration Department (NRD), the number of children born out of wedlock to underaged children between 2012 and 2013, are 1,490 for Malays and 1,836 for non-Malays.

However, the reported underaged rape numbers were 584 cases for non-Malays, while the unreported underaged rape among non-Malays, based on NRD statistics, came to 1,252 cases.

Wan Hamzah said that he “fervently denies” that Wan Junaidi’s statement was racist.

“Statistics based on race have become a practice in our country in our effort to steer our country into a developed nation status. Statistics based on race have been used in economic, education and social categories as well,” he said.

Instead, Wan Hamzah said, the country should be “thankful” to Wan Junaidi for delivering a brave answer, even though he knew the answer might be unpopular.

“We also learn from this episode how easily our people are provoked under the name of racism,” he added.

Full statement by Wan Hamzah (in Bahasa Malaysia)