Hannah: Don't let child sex offenders get away because of budget constraints

Hannah Yeoh has lauded de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong's admission regarding weaknesses in how the law obtains witness testimonies from child victims of sexual offences.

The women, family and community development deputy minister said this showed that nothing was being swept under the carpet and that identifying limitations was a positive development.

Liew had on Tuesday told the Dewan Rakyat that there were struggles in getting witness testimonies from child sexual offence victims including a lack of facilities, equipment that has fallen into disrepair and the lack of training for interviewers taking down the children's' testimonies.

Yeoh (above) said her ministry would work together with Liew to ensure that these flaws were improved upon.

"We must make progress [...] everyone, the government, judiciary, NGOs and families need to work together to ensure our kids are safe and perpetrators are not let off because of a lack of budget.

"I am always of the opinion that if we have enough money for football, events in hotels and travelling expenses for ministries, we must surely have enough for the children," she told Malaysiakini.

Meanwhile, Yeoh also shared ongoing efforts by the government to safeguard the interests of children.

Chief among them was the setting up a 'Children's Agency' so that funding and resources were allocated under the federal budget to ensure that "the welfare and wellbeing of children are catered for".

The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry was also pushing to increase the number of child protectors to enforce the Child Act.

She said the Home Ministry was looking to beef-up manpower and resources in Bukit Aman's D11 Sexual, Women and Children’s Investigations Division "to ensure speedy investigations related to children."

Putrajaya also wanted capacity-building and training for officers such as those in the Social Welfare Department, the police, and the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Also being pushed for was a more comprehensive system for the Children's Registry which will contain the names of sexual offenders against children, she said.

Since 2017, 3,738 new cases of child sexual offences were recorded including 978 cases in 2019 while 1,131 cases have been prosecuted since with a conviction.

 - Mkini