SUBANG: The women, family and community development ministry has urged the police to take swift action in investigating cases of underage marriage to pave the way for their prosecution in court.
Deputy minister Hannah Yeoh said although there was legislation on child grooming, charges did not come from her ministry. It was for the police to investigate and the attorney-general (AG) to bring to court, she added.
“If you ask me, I am in full support of investigations into these men who take very young brides. They cannot hide behind current laws which enable them to take these young girls as brides.
“Even though the shariah court legally grants them consent, the police and the AG must still do their jobs in probing these cases, and bring successful cases to court.”
Speaking to FMT after the Mental Health Awareness & Suicide Prevention Policy Forum at Sunway University here yesterday, Yeoh said Malaysia had a grooming law that had not been used.
“I believe the nation wants to see how it is used. I urge the AG to move quickly on this,” she added.
The law to which she referred to comes under Part III of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (SOAC). The SOAC was enacted specifically to deal with child sexual abuse and the act of preparing a child for sex.
Yeoh had been asked to comment on a statement by Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) that the authorities’ failure to act against the Kelantanese man who took an 11-year-old bride in July had become an “advertisement” to other paedophiles that they could get away with abusing minors in Malaysia.
LFL executive director Latheefa Koya said paedophiles were taking advantage of the lack of decisive action, following another case of child marriage where a 44-year-old man in Tumpat, Kelantan, had taken a 15-year-old girl as his second wife.
Yeoh, who is Segambut MP, said her ministry had been proactively engaging all parties on the matter.
She said a meeting had been held with other ministries last week, adding that they were in the process of pushing the minimum marriageable age to 18.
“The effort to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 is making progress with various agencies and states,” she said. “It is on the ministry’s agenda every week.
“We are also talking to all the states, to get them to do what Selangor has done (in raising the minimum marriageable age to 18).” -FMT
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