With the increase of sexual harassment, especially cyber-harassment during the movement control order (MCO), civil society group has launched an online campaign urging the government to table the Sexual Harassment Bill in Parliament in November.
All Women’s Action Society (Awam) launched the social media campaign last week to raise awareness on and advocate for the passing of the bill.
To join the campaign, netizens are asked to post status with the hashtag #AWAMForTheBill, #JanganHampakanKami, and #DontDisappointUs; use Awam’s Facebook frame on profile pictures, and sign their online petition.
Since Oct 3, more than 4,500 have signed the petition.
The group has also been posting photos of politicians holding a placard stating “Table the Sexual Harassment Bill in November”, demonstrating the bipartisan support that the bill has gained.
Those who joined the campaign included Youth and Sports Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican, Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Seremban MP and former transport minister Anthony Loke, Kota Raja MP and former defence minister Mohammad Sabu, among others.
New bill to cover cyber harassment
An Awam representative told Malaysiakini that there is an urgent need to pass the bill since sexual harassment has become more rampant with the advance of technology.
She pointed out that the new bill will cover online sexual harassment. At present, Malaysia does not have any law to deal with such cases.
“With online harassment, perpetrators could easily access information anywhere and anytime, but survivors are disadvantaged not just because they don't know what measures to take but also because the complaint procedure is often long and humiliating as these online materials exposed are often private.
“Thus, we think that keeping Malaysia safe is important now more than ever,” said the representative.
She added that of the 191 complaints that Awam received for gender-based violence from March 18 to Sept 9, 40 of them were related to sexual harassment, most of them online.
“This is higher than the total number of cases we received for the whole of last year!”
In addition, quite a number of victims who seek help from Awam refuse to make a police report due to the hassle of doing so and not wanting to make a big deal out of it.
“For example, in the recent V2K case, nine victims contacted Awam for help, but only four actually went with us to make a police report,” she added.
It is common for the victims of sexual harassment to not make a police report, and the reasons behind it include the feeling of powerlessness and embarrassment.
According to a study released by YouGov Omnibus in June 2019, over a third (36 percent) of Malaysian women have experienced sexual harassment, compared to one in six (17 percent) men.
The results were based on 1,002 Malaysians who participated in the survey.
Of those who have faced sexual harassment, only half (53 percent) reported or told someone about the incident. Most of them choose to tell a friend (54 percent) or family (51 percent) about the incident, rather than lodging a police report (15 percent).
The main reasons people chose not to report sexual harassment include embarrassment (54 percent), feeling that no one would do anything about the problem (38 percent) and fear of repercussion (26 percent).
Despite the low reporting rate, police data show that sexual harassment cases in the country are on the rise - from 117 in 2013 to 308 in 2019.
A 20-year long-awaited bill
Civic groups in Malaysia have been calling for a sexual harassment law for more than two decades.
“A bill was drafted by the Women's Centre for Change in Penang in the 1990s and Awam worked on it with them.
“In 2019, we were also part of the special task force, spearheaded by KPWKM (Women, Family and Community Development Ministry), to refine the sexual harassment bill.
“All the recommendations are in the Sexual Harassment Bill that we have drafted and proposed unless there are some changes made by the authorities,” said the Awam’s representative.
According to Awam, the new bill should widen the definition of sexual harassment, apply to everyone living in Malaysia regardless of citizenship, and it is not only limited to workplaces like the existing Employment Act but also covers public areas.
The Pakatan Harapan government had begun working on the anti-harassment bill in 2018, which had been part of the coalition’s GE14 election manifesto.
The bill was supposed to be tabled in March this year, but it was derailed after a full Dewan Rakyat session was postponed in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was also after the collapse of the Harapan government.
Previously, Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Rina Harun said the bill was expected to be tabled for a first reading in the Dewan Rakyat by year's end.
Currently, apart from the Penal Code and the Employment Act of 1955, Malaysia has no specific statute to deal with sexual harassment.
However, civic groups and scholars opined that both laws are not enough. Among the reasons they raised include the Employment Act 1955 is confined only to Peninsular Malaysia, while the Penal Code does not clearly define sexual harassment. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.