Out of the shadows: the horrors of child sexual abuse

 

From Zalina Ismail

This could just be an urban legend but the physiologist in me knows that if you put a frog in boiling water, it either dies immediately or jumps out while it still can.

But if you place a frog in a pot of cold water and gradually raise the temperature, it will get used to the temperature until it is too late to do anything.

For too long, we have been the frogs in water where the temperature has been gradually rising.

In Kelantan, for the last 33 years, the water situation has been getting incrementally worse, but no one noticed. We use bore water that turns from crystal clear to turbid in the wink of an eye.

We are told it is okay and we believe that half-truth. We wait for buses under leaky roofs without complaining much even if the number of dry spots are becoming few and far between. We are told we need to adjust according to the situation, and we also believe that half-truth.

I thought this was a 

Kelantan

 thing, until last month when I realised we are all complacent frogs when it comes to the unimaginable horror of physical and sexual abuse faced by hundreds of children placed in charity homes across the country.

This was going on for years, hidden in plain sight. How could I have missed it? I can spot a typographical error in my student’s thesis from a kilometre away, how could I have not seen this?

Certainly, it does raise issues of accountability and awareness.

Was there total unawareness on the part of those responsible for keeping our children safe? What about those who have been entrusted to maintain a civil society? Surely there were early warning signs.

When important issues like this take a long time to be exposed, it can be due to a complexity of systemic, social and psychological factors.

Systemic factors

The Out of the Shadow Index 2022 assesses how 60 countries are tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse. Malaysia ranks 28th, behind Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, despite having laws in place. Clearly, as recent events have shown, we need to do something about this and do it fast.

What systemic issues could have let us rank so low on the Out of the Shadow Index 2022?

This index measures across four key domains: environment, legal framework, government commitment and capacity, and engagement of civil society and industry. Ranking low on this index suggests systemic failures across these areas.

There are so many possible systemic issues contributing to a low ranking. Perhaps we have overloaded or understaffed agencies, resulting in missed cases and inadequate follow-up on reports. If frontline professionals are not equipped to detect or report abuse, it remains hidden.

Perhaps it is the fear of shame or ostracism that prevents children and families from speaking out. If children do not speak, it remains hidden.

Perhaps it is poverty and limited public education about child sexual abuse and exploitation. If fewer people recognise warning signs or understand how to report abuse, it remains hidden.

Social factors

In 1837, Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairytale called The Emperor’s New Clothes. An emperor is tricked into believing he is wearing an invisible suit of clothes when in reality, he is wearing nothing. The power of collective denial is such that everyone, including the villagers, pretends to see the clothes until a child reveals the truth: 

But he isn’t wearing anything at all!

Why did it take so long before any action was taken? There are times when it seems that our institutions operate in a reactive mode. If you want anything to be effectively addressed, first make a police report.

Our bureaucracy rarely acts pre-emptively and often lacks proactive risk management. It often addresses issues only when they reach crisis levels or become the subject of complaints.

Or perhaps it has to do with something more insidious. The power dynamics exist where people are often discouraged from addressing wrongdoing if it involves influential individuals or groups. Was it their social power or their financial strength that protected them from scrutiny?

Together with a lack of accountability and bureaucratic inefficiency, these are ideal situations for such a horrific case of child sexual abuse to occur.

It took Malaysia almost 10 long years before someone was brave enough to speak out against authority and popular opinion when he knew something was wrong. In this case, someone finally was brave enough to say the emperor was not wearing any clothes.

Psychological factors

I can understand the shock and horror that you and I feel about the sexual abuse of children, but I cannot understand why it occurred for so long and on such a massive scale within our midst, virtually undetected. Where did you and I go wrong?

Many a time, we find ourselves stuck between a belief and behaviour. Surely a religious community would be morally strong. Surely sexual abuse and child abandonment are never compatible with morally upright communities.

This dissonance aligns with Leon Festinger’s theory from the 1950s. He posited that when actions contradict beliefs, it creates psychological discomfort known as 

cognitive dissonance

.

In simpler terms, when a person engages in behaviour that does not match their beliefs and moral values, they tend to experience psychological discomfort. We either change our behaviour or rationalise it to avoid disturbing our belief system and moral values.

Sometimes, we get it right but in this case, we got it horribly wrong.

Cognitive dissonance is why many of us failed to see what was happening, in some cases right in our own backyards. Did the neighbour not realise that the children were not going to school? Did no one notice how the children behaved?

Historical cases like the UK’s Victoria Climbie in 2000 and the US’s Gabriel Fernandez in 2013 show how systemic issues and community silence can result in tragic outcomes.

Despite multiple visits from social workers, doctors and the police, the abuse was not detected in time. Social services failed to take adequate action even after clear signs of neglect and injuries were present.

These cases reveal systemic problems like poor inter-agency communication, inadequate investigation of warning signs and failures in safeguarding. Social services’ delay in action often results in tragic consequences for vulnerable children.

Sadly, we often fail to recognise something negative even when it happens right in front of us because it sometimes doesn’t fit our expectations.

To bring back cognitive stability, our brains choose to ignore what we see. Sometimes we even downplay or ignore anything negative because it does not fit our expectations of normalcy.

These factors often prevent us from recognising or addressing negative situations, even if it happens right in front of us.

Community engagement

To prevent future tragedies, we must enhance community engagement and support systems. Neighbours should check in on each other, especially on vulnerable individuals. Schools and community members need to be actively involved in safeguarding children.

This atrocity should never happen ever again. As Kofi Annan so aptly said: 

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they can grow up in peace. - FMT

Zalina Ismail is a former professor of Universiti Sains Malaysia.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.