Day in day out, through the hustle and bustle of life, crimes against the female community such as rape, outrage of modesty, sexual harassment and abuse, forced prostitution, domestic violence and counting, has brought us into a false perception that such crimes are normal as the nation advances from a Third World nation to a developed nation. But I opine otherwise.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the safety of the female community (regardless of a female toddler or an aged grandmother) has been and still is in deplorable neglect.  A few days ago, we were shocked again of how a 14-year-old orphan was raped several times by her classmates.

I am dismayed and disgusted that the heinous crime was committed in a classroom during recess in a school in Rawang. Worse still, on April 24, a 7-year-old girl has alleged that she was molested by a security guard working at her primary school in Batu Arang, Rawang.

Are we Malaysians progressing or regressing back to a primitive, hedonistic society? It is a fact that the school management is responsible for students within the compound. How could a rape be committed during recess hour? One look at a rape victim’s face can point out the trauma that she has just suffered during the recess and I don’t see how the school authorities could fail.

I pose a question - what if that orphan was the daughter of the teacher or principal in that school? Wouldn’t they take the trouble to know it? How could a security guard be appointed by the school when the guard himself was a threat to the security of the 7-year-old girl? The trauma of the two girls is a mark on their lives forever.

What would they say to their husbands-to-be, given the prevalent sexist attitude of males who only want virgins? How could they be expected to recover form this trauma and focus on their education?

On behalf of all Malaysian mothers, elder and younger sisters and female friends, we request our deputy prime minister and education minister Muhyiddin Haji Mohd Yassin to give us a written reply that his ministry will ensure that all schools will be once again safe for the female students and that in  particular the two schools in Rawang will be taken to task. We want to know what preventive measures will be implemented hereafter by the ministry.

We would also request the de facto law minister, Mohamad Nazri bin Abdul Aziz to give us a written reply as to what are the initiatives of Parliament to criminalise marital rape in Malaysia. A wife must be prevented from being raped by her husband as soon as possible.

Abraham Lincoln said ‘You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today’. Clarence Darrow said ‘As long as the world shall last, there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever’.

We cannot remain unconcerned, undaunted and behind time in affording the female community (young or old) their fair and rightful entitlements to equal rights, protection from heinous crimes and a guaranteed fair chance to succeed as the male community in Malaysia.