We are not taking paedophilia seriously

 

Child activist James Nayagam says under-reporting of cases rendered the child sex offenders’ registry meaningless.

From Nirvana Jalil Ghani

Mara maths scholar Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin was studying at Imperial College in the UK in 2015 when he was arrested, charged and convicted of producing and possessing thousands of images depicting penetrative sex with minors. This caused an outrage in our country, with questions raised as to how a scholar was able to commit such a crime overseas and put Malaysians to shame.

I remember this case very well as I was working as the press secretary to the then foreign affairs minister Anifah Aman. Anifah condemned the crime and added his voice to growing calls for a sex offenders list in the country, particularly of those involving crimes against children.

In 2019, it was reported that Nur Fitri was studying at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and that the then rural and regional development minister Shafie Apdal and then Mara chairman Annuar Musa wanted to give this paedophile a second chance. What was even more astonishing was that he was not even on our sexual offenders list? How bizarre is this?

The government told us his name was not on the list because the list of sex offenders was compiled only in 2017 and that the Sexual Offences Against Children (SOAC) Act 2017 only came into force in July that year. This meant that the government only had records of convictions from 2017 onwards.

Nur Fitri was sentenced to five years’ jail in 2015 after he pleaded guilty in a London court for keeping over 30,000 images and videos of child pornography.

British police had then said that the files he had kept were the “most extreme material” they had come across. He was extradited to Malaysia after serving a jail sentence that was reduced from 18 months to nine.

Was this not enough information for the government to place Nur Fitri under the Malaysian sex offenders list? Why has the list not been made public?

More importantly, why does the sex offenders’ list remain under the care of the women, family and community development ministry which does not have the proper authority?

Shouldn’t the list be under the care of the home ministry? Why does it take five days for any member of the public to get any information on who is on the sexual offender’s list and why is the process to obtain the information so rigid and not people-friendly?

Some may argue that paedophilia is a mental illness and may use it as an excuse for the reformation of offenders and giving offenders second chances.

However, as a mother of four children who are still under the age of 16, I am not willing to take the chance to forgive such an offence nor do I wish to take the risk of the offender repeating the offence.

Do we even have a system or an aptitude test currently in government that detects applicants for jobs with a heavy tendency to do such an act? Especially for those who may or will be exposed to or have access to children or even teenagers in their line of work.

It is indeed very disappointing that since 2015, we are still nowhere near having the proper procedure to ensure the necessary people are registered in the Malaysian Sex Offenders’ List nor are we allowing the necessary public access to the information.

Unfortunately, Nur Fitri’s case is not an isolated one. What about the Canny Ong case in 2003? Was it really the first sexual offence for the offender? Was he even on any sexual offenders list?

Some studies claim that sexual offenders who turn murderers normally would have committed sexual offences in the past prior to the murder. The story of how the offender, Ahmad Najib Aris, then 27, abducted, raped, murdered and dumped Canny’s body into a manhole before torching it was published in detail.

Another case, reported by Kembara Kitchen founder William Cheah in 2018, involved a 36-year-old man who had allegedly been sexually grooming underage girls he met via charity groups and churches where he was a volunteer. The man was alleged to have been preying on young girls in Malaysia via Facebook since 2008.

More than 15 of them stepped forward at the time to recount their encounters with the paedophile since his messages with girls as young as 14 were posted on Facebook. Do we even know if this paedophile was ever registered on our sex offenders list?

Sadly, many cases such as the ones I’ve mentioned seem to exist in Malaysia, but do we take these seriously?

It was a British court that handed Richard Huckle 22 life sentences in June 2018 for abusing up to 200 babies and children, mostly in Malaysia, and sharing images of his crimes on the dark web.

Name and shame sex offenders

Again, some may argue that the reason the Malaysian government does not publish child sexual abuse data is because it is protected under Malaysia’s Official Secrets Act. The government provides data on child abuse only at the request of a member of parliament.

Now, I can understand if we do not publish the name of the victims, especially being minors, but why can’t we name and shame the offenders? This could be an act to deter future or potential offenders from committing similar offences.

Should we not be given the opportunity to defend our children and do we not have the right to feel safe?

Foreign paedophiles could be targeting Malaysia as other countries around the region strengthen child protection laws and step-up enforcement. Snow White Smelser, programme officer at the child sex offences team in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) East Asia headquarters in Bangkok, said in 2018 that paedophiles would compare notes and share information online about countries where they could operate most freely.

Weak child protection laws make it difficult to punish child abusers in Malaysia, leading to inadequate investigations and low convictions on the reported cases, according to officials and child welfare groups that Reuters interviewed.

With all these cases happening and even more under the radar happening, are we taking the issue of paedophilia, child sexual abuse and the need for a proper sexual offenders list that is made public too lightly?

God forbid paedophiles target countries such as Malaysia due to weak laws against sexual offenders. Do we want our country to become famous for all the wrong reasons? These are questions which should be answered.

It is high time that the Malaysian government provide the police with the appropriate laws and tools to be able to act accordingly and it is also high time that the Malaysian public be given access to information when it comes to sexual offences, especially those involving minors.

We, the public, need a sense of security and should have the right to know if a sexual offender is anywhere near the vicinity of our children and women.

I implore the government to allow easier public access to the sex offenders list and that the ministry of home affairs take charge of such a list.

Nirvana Jalil Ghani is the executive director of the International Strategy Institute. -FMT

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