COMMENT Two shocking cases involving child abuse recently featured in the news, prompting us to ask whether we as a nation are doing enough to protect the most vulnerable among us from the worst experiences imaginable.

The first case made the news on Saturday. In this case, custody of a seven-year-old girl was transferred by the Sessions Court from her grandaunt to her father and grandmother.

Three years before, custody had been given to the grandaunt after accusations that the girl’s father and paternal grandparents had been sexually abusing the child.

The abuse was verified by medical examinations, but the police ultimately dropped the case against the three accused due to a lack of evidence.

Of note was the desperate manner in which the girl tried to hold on to her grandaunt, while her grandmother pulled her away, after the court made its ruling. It took 20 minutes before the girl was dragged into the car and taken away.

The second case involves a woman charged with murdering one of her children and abusing two of her others. The dead child was 11 years old, and one of a pair of twins, the other whom the woman has pleaded guilty to abusing. She has a nine-month-old daughter as well, whom she pleaded not guilty to abusing.

Stop any more children from meeting this fate

Reading of two such cases in such a short time raises urgent concerns for the safety and well-being of the seven-year-old girl in the first case.

It is important that as outsiders without a full knowledge of all available facts, we should not presume anyone guilty until proven as such.

That said, the many facts apparently surrounding the case, which we shall discuss below, should certainly give the authorities pause.

The main question I believe we must ask is - have the courts put a young girl in a situation where she might eventually meet the fate of the children from the second case? This is the most appalling possibility that we must take every effort to avoid.

One of those three children from the second case has paid the ultimate price, and is no longer with us. Victims of abuse who have survived however, face almost equally distressing futures.

The trauma and long-lasting psychological scars from such abuse often stretch long into adulthood, sometimes resulting in cycles of destructive behaviour.

There are few greater tragedies when victims of abuse are unable to process through their experiences, and end up becoming perpetrators of abuse themselves, as has often happened.

We need not even discuss at length just how many wounds abuse inflicts on children in the long term; that any child abuse happens at all is appalling and should be prevented at every cost.

Pay careful attention to all facts in the case

The state, as the only legal authority in the land who can legitimately enforce the granting of custody and so on, has an especially high duty of care in these matters.

Thus, it should take special care not to err when making decisions such as the one in the first case.

A number of facts surrounding that particular case deserve careful attention.

Firstly, the Welfare Department recommended to the court that custody be given to the grandaunt and granduncle.

The Welfare Department consists of social workers who presumably take the time to carefully visit all the different homes involved, interview the adults at length, and perform their due diligence in determining after careful comparison which the best environment for the child should be.

A number of child welfare NGOs have also reportedly taken up advocacy on this case, decrying what they see as an incorrect decision by the courts.

Also worth noting is that the mother of the girl is reported as being 22 years old. This would mean she had the child around the age of 15.

While in and of itself certainly not a damning fact, the notion that the father in this case impregnated such a young girl may raise a number of questions.

Perhaps most importantly is the young girl’s own reaction to the transfer of custody.

Yes, we can speculate and say maybe she was just being difficult and so on, but especially for one so young, we should likely take her desperate protestations at face value into extremely careful consideration, given what is at stake here.

Our common duty to protect

The care and protection that we afford our young is the very watermark of our civilisation. Every child, no matter the circumstance, deserves the fullest measure of protection that is humanly possible.

Given the many failures of Malaysian bureaucracy, we are inclined to be especially careful to ensure that this decision was not made in some cursory, shorthand manner by individuals who did not take the time and care to do what was both ethically and legally right in this situation.

Hopefully, we will see greater transparency and diligence on the part of all legal and law enforcement agencies to ensure that this young, seven-year-old girl is truly protected and not put in harm’s way by the very people who were supposed to protect her.

NATHANIEL TAN hopes Malaysia can be made safe for all our children.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.