MP SPEAKS I refer to the inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement that a sex offenders’ registry is unnecessary.
For background, in 2007, after the gruesome discovery of the battered body of eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin who was raped and murdered and then stuffed in a sports bag, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) under then IGP Musa Hassan and the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry proposed the creation of a Sexual Offenders Registration Act.
Among others, Musa Hassan said that names and photographs of sex offenders including paedophiles would be published in a registry on the Internet and in newspapers. He also said that the registry would be shared with law enforcement agencies worldwide in exchange for their respective lists of convicted offenders.
In 2010, PDRM and the same ministry met to devise a mechanism to implement such an Act including monitoring methods.
A year later in 2011, the two parties met again to update and iron out details on the said Act.
Both my predecessor Chong Eng (former MP for Bukit Mertajam, currently Penang state exco for women, family and community development) and I have on numerous occasions expressed our support for such legislation.
Eight years have now passed and after so much effort from PDRM themselves, the government, as well as the various NGOs and advocacy groups, the current IGP is telling us that there is actually no need for such a mechanism.
After eight long years of waiting, the U-turn is a tragedy, especially for women and girls already exposed to sexual crimes every single day in Malaysia.
Registry not a novel idea
The Sexual Offenders Registration Act is not a new idea. As mentioned, here in Malaysia it was already proposed by the government as early as 2007.
Around the world, countries such as Australia, UK, USA, and South Africa have such mechanisms.
There are many models of implementation but the basic idea is to track and monitor former sexual offenders after they have served their jail sentence. Further restrictions may be imposed, for example, limiting their access to vulnerable groups such as school children, including preventing them from holding a job with such access.
Such registry may or may not be published for public access. In the USA, the registry is published on the Internet, while in the UK, the registry can only be accessed by persons with genuine concern, including members of the public.
While PDRM and the government now say that the Registration of Criminal and Undesirable Persons Act 1969 is sufficient, the Act itself is in need of review and update.
In 2012, women’s advocacy group Awam already called for specific laws against sexual offenders over the existing criminal registry.
Inadequate protection of women, girls
In its present form, the legal system in our country is totally inadequate to protect women and young girls. There is a pressing need to reform the entire legal system.
Today in Malaysia, every 15 minutes a woman is raped in Malaysia. 100 women become victims of rape every day and half of them are below 16 years old.
Just a year ago, in Ketereh, Kelantan, a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped by 30 men.
Not only are we living in a culture which perpetuates disrespect for women as evidenced by the various sexist innuendos by even our parliamentarians, the present legal system does not seem to be on the side of women and girls.
While Awam found that only 1 in 10 reported rape cases are brought to court (Awam, The Rape Report 2002), a report by the Penang-based Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) showed that only 4 percent of these cases are finally convicted (WCC, 2008) after a torturous court proceeding mostly suffered by the victims and their family.
The recent Court of Appeal’s acquittal of 60-year-old Bunya Jalong in Sarawak, who was found guilty by the lower courts of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old, is but one nauseating example of how counterintuitive our legal system is when it comes to the protection of women and girls.
Women's minister conspicuously silent
I am surprised that the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is silent on this matter. Being one of the original proposers of the Sexual Offenders Registration Act in 2007 and having worked on the bill for the last eight years including to fine tune details of its implementation, what happened to the bill now? Why the U-turn by the Ministry after so much effort poured into this Act and after all the waiting?
I call on the three former women, family and community development ministers who were involved in the process of formulating the bill since 2007, Ng Yen Yen, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and Najib Razak to come out and shed light on the bill.
I also call on former IGP Musa Hassan who has been a strong proponent of the bill from the beginning to join us to pressure the current government to implement the Sexual Offenders Registration Act.
The time is now: it has been eight long years and millions of victims in Malaysia, and we cannot wait anymore.
STEVEN SIM is MP for Bukit Mertajam and member of the Penang government women, family & community development committee.
