Don’t leave Sexual Harassment Bill in limbo

For the All Women’s Action Society (Awam), the celebration of International Women’s Day 2020 (IWD 2020) in Malaysia is a bittersweet one.

The final act of legislating the Sexual Harassment Act will clearly not materialise this month, due to the Dewan Rakyat sitting being postponed to May.

Many hours were spent by a number of stakeholders, not limited to the women’s groups, in scrutinising sexual harassment laws from other countries, to pick out the best regulations that would fit the Malaysian context.

Meeting after meeting was held in Putrajaya to draft out a workable Bill, and then to review each line of the draft Bill to ensure that all loopholes were closed and that sexual harassment laws would work within our country’s legal, social and culture systems.

Awam and the other women’s groups strived to ensure that as many people as possible were aware of the Sexual Harassment Bill. It must be noted that we received very positive responses to the Bill, from both men and women.

Merely by its creation and enactment, the Bill would have placed Malaysia among the likes of the UK, US, Australia and Japan (all of whom have standalone sexual harassment laws).

For this International Women’s Day, Awam would like to appeal to the powers that be to be aware of how much social policies such as the Sexual Harassment Bill could contribute to the positive development of the country.

It would have paved the foundation for a physically safer and mentally healthier rakyat. Mental stress and depression are direct effects of sexual harassment.

Furthermore, social policies promote social trust. When society feels safe with each other, they are further encouraged to work together, and this leads to better democratic institutions, more growth in the economy and less crime and corruption.

This form of social capital is the security that Malaysia needs in our current troubled and uncertain times.

It is acknowledged that sexual harassment is a huge social ill in Malaysia. From 2017 to 2019, 55 people, three of whom were men, came to Awam for our free counselling and legal information services because they had been sexually harassed, mainly by their superiors at work.

Police have openly reported that sexual harassment happens in our public schools, where the youngest victim was seven years old.

In fact, from January to September last year, 186 cases of sexual harassment cases involved school-going kids, aged from seven to 18.

A survey of 1,002 Malaysians carried out by YouGov Omnibus revealed that one in four Malaysians are sexually harassed at some point in their lives — of which 26.6% were harassed in a public place.

Police also noted that between 2013 and 2017, 21% of reported cases of sexual harassment involved men.

Social policies like the Sexual Harassment Bill offers people the option to be treated fairly and equally.

Ensuring that the Sexual Harassment Bill is passed this year will also work hand in hand with IWD 2020’s theme, “I am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights”.

Regardless of who will become our prime minister after May, the powers that be should use this excellent opportunity to look into adding more female MPs into the line-up, if not immediately, at least in the long term.

As of 2019, there were 33 women in the federal Parliament (14.9%), five female ministers (17.8%) and four female deputy ministers (14.8%).

The last government could not meet the 30% quota in representation of women in Parliament.

This IWD2020, Awam would like to see consistent efforts to put in motion robust plans to reach the 30% quota for women in Parliament.

We call on all political parties to actively choose to challenge gender and other stereotypes, fight gender bias and discrimination, broaden perceptions, improve women’s access in all situations, and celebrate women’s achievements.

All Women’s Action Society (Awam). - FMT