The Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) has called on lawmakers to urgently pass the law to make stalking an offence in the Penal Code and to introduce a restraining order against stalkers in the Criminal Procedure Code.

WAO in a statement said stalking is currently not a crime in Malaysia and that if someone were to repeatedly contact, follow, or show up at the victim’s frequent places, there is little that authorities could do.

The women’s rights group said it was high time for Malaysia to join the ranks of many countries that had criminalised stalking, including Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States of America.

“Malaysians are already being stalked, with some eventually murdered or maimed. Do we need to wait for a high profile case to shock the nation before we act?” the statement said.

WAO said its 2013 report had documented that 26 percent of 34 domestic violence cases involved stalking, and that the figure was consistent with statistics in other countries.

“A 2014 study by Universiti Sains Malaysia showed that nine percent of women in peninsular Malaysia, who have been in a relationship, have experienced domestic violence which equivalent to over 900,000 women.

“Based on these figures, it is possible that around 250,000 domestic violence survivors in Malaysia have been stalked by their abusers (26-33 percent of 900,000 women),” it said.

– Bernama