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Only a few days ago the nation was baffled when Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak said most Malaysians chose slower, cheaper Internet, much to the amusement of DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang who nailed Salleh, demanding that he focuses on Internet availability and speed rather than propagating nonsense.

History repeated itself when Permata patron Rosmah Mansor made a clearly shocking claim to an international audience two days ago at the ‘Girls Not Brides’ breakfast panel in New York that child marriages are rare in Malaysia.

I concur fully with the Joint Action Group’s (JAG) rebuttal yesterday that Rosmah Mansor should not have played down a critical issue such as the rarity of occurrence of child marriages which is a clear violation of human rights.

Not only are child marriages NOT rare in Malaysia, but ONE incident alone is one too many!

Had Rosmah spent some time doing real research on the topic, she would have found startling numbers and a collection of articles on child marriages in Malaysia on the website of ‘Girls Not Brides’ itself, for which she delivered her speech. And right under own nose.

It is a sad state of affairs when the alleged ‘first lady’, presumably ill-informed or ill-advised or had made such a patriarchal statement for the whole world to see and hear when she swept the grave matter of child marriages under the carpet in light of creating a pseudo-feel good scenario when it is clearly far from it.

Statistics collected from the Malaysian Syariah Court, UN Country Gender Theme Groups Census reports, Health Ministry reports, UN progress reports on HIV and UN Populations Fund findings and put together by Sisters In Islam (SIS), shows that in 2009, 32 Muslim girls aged below 10 underwent premarital HIV screening which is a prerequisite to tie the knot.

Ten- to 14-year-old girls constituted 445, but the highest number was 6,815 girls between the ages of 15 to 19, and 1,911 boys from the same age group.

And this was in 2009! Very alarming facts indeed. But why weren't these numbers mentioned? It is unforgivable that a person of such high stature to make such dangerous statements on the rights of children in Malaysia. Even if there is one case, what is the government doing to ensure it does not happen again?

What Rosmah should have done was to get in touch with the various human rights, women and children NGOs in Malaysia on the current state of affairs of the rights of children, child marriage, child labour, education as well the poverty level in the country before disseminating information on these topics.

Her speech should have been on what the real statistics are on child marriages in the country and it is a worrying problem as one case is already one too many.

Crucial roles to play

That the federal government, state governments, local governments, civil society, NGOs and even up to the level of village heads have crucial roles to play and work together to ensure that the rights of children to health, reproductive health, access to justice in the civil court and the Syariah court, borderless education as well as life-training skills. And that it is important to network with other countries who have had success stories in upholding human rights.

Instead Rosmah gave a speech determined to paint a shiny, glossy picture far from the true scenario on what is actually happening on the ground - a rose tinted view.

As patron of Permata, Rosmah has grossly misled not just the international audience in her ‘Girls Not Brides’ speech at the Ford Foundation in New York, but has proven to Malaysians alike that she is ill-informed on the matter of child marriages on home ground.


KASTHURI PATTO is the MP for Batu Kawan and vice-chairperson of Wanita DAP, Penang.

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