Who speaks for the children?

Mariam Mokhtar, Malaysia Chronicle

The scandalous revelation that our government had no intention of reviewing laws allowing for underage marriages because ‘the practice is permitted under Islam’ leaves our children vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation.
Aren’t our children entitled to grow up in an environment that ensures their protection? Are we raising awareness at various levels of society and in the government, about creating a protective environment for our children?

This month has seen more revelations that our children are exploited in more ways than one.

In mid-December, it was reported that around 40,000 children below the age of 18 were working in Sabah. Several of the children were undocumented. They work long hours, some for six days a week. They are mainly ‘employed’ in the oil palm plantations.

The Sabah Labour Department said that there was no "formal" employment of children and young persons in the plantation, construction and fisheries sectors. Its director Siti Aishah Mohd Asri said, “Those found are mainly assisting their parents.”

The Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act in Malaysia, amended this year, defines a child as under 15 and a young person as between 16 and 18. A child may do "light work" carried out by his family, public entertainment if licensed, and approved training or apprenticeships -- for not more than seven hours a day. "Hazardous work" is prohibited.

Siti Aishah also said that Sabah's Labour Ordinance provisions are similar. Her department gives talks to employers, inspects workplaces and takes action when they find children and young persons employed against the provisions of the ordinance. Since 1995, 17 cases were taken to court.

The former Indonesian deputy chief of mission to Malaysia, Tatang Razak, claims there are more than 30,000 Indonesian children in Sabah, and that 25,000 were performing "light work".

He said that some were as young as 7 or 8, of both sexes, working in plantations all over Sabah and also at construction sites. He said that the work they performed was unsuitable because the children had no proper place to sleep or bathe.

South of the border, children in the Taiton area near Bau, in Sarawak, were employed as cheap labour by syndicates, to mine gold illegally. They operate where illegal mining was rampant.

According to one boy, “There are so many towkays whom we work for. They will inform us if there is a job, where and when. We go by shifts and we can be chiselling away till 4am. Some want us to makan gaji (be paid a uniform rate) of RM40 per day but that is not good enough.”

The only tools needed were a chisel and hammer.

Health workers, teachers, police, social workers and many others who interact with children need to be equipped with the motivation, skills and authority to identify and respond to child protection abuses.

Government commitment to respecting, protecting and fulfilling child protection is an essential element of a protective environment. Very often governments will deny that there is a problem, when in reality exploitation of children is found.

It appears that our children are more vulnerable to abuse, violence, discrimination and violation of their rights, in 21st Century Malaysia.