INTERVIEW | Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek has given a firm commitment that sexual harassment and bullying will be tackled head-on during her time in charge of the ministry.
“There will be no more Ain Husniza case during my time,” she said of schoolgirl Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, who spoke up in April 2021 against one of her teachers for allegedly making a rape joke in class.
Ain was then bombarded with lawsuits and threats - including a rape threat from a classmate, who later apologised.
“There are three big sins in the Education Ministry. Tiga dosa besar. One is bullying, second is sexual harassment, and the third is perkauman (communalism). We don’t compromise on these three,” Fadhlina told Malaysiakini during an interview last week.
“That’s why we have streamlined the guidelines as we don’t want it to happen again. Last month, we launched two important guidelines about bullying and sexual harassment in schools.
“We do take these matters seriously and that’s why if there is a case involving sexual harassment, it must go through the process directly to the authorities. We also don’t want to allow any room for the complaints to be a long process.
“If there is a complaint, we resolve the complaint. If there is a police report, we hand it over to the police,” she said.
Convincing the rank-and-file
While acknowledging the challenges of being in an emotionally charged position, she said that she hoped to bring fresh energy and commitment to her role.
“We will protect the children immediately. Protecting children is very important. That’s why counselling is also an important part of the process.
“We want to solve it through the correct work process and give justice to all parties if possible. That’s why the guidelines are so important at this point,” said Fahdlina.
She said that upon first taking on the the ministerial post, she had to spend a few months “winning over” the stakeholders to her cause.
“We had to engage teachers, schools, and staff members. After that, I have been concentrating on issues that I really want to address during my activist time.
“The issues of access, gender gap, and sexual harassment are very important,” she added.
Period spot checks
When she was serving in the Dewan Negara, Fadhlina had been a vocal advocate of students who complained about period spot checks, which was particularly prevalent in residential schools.
It was felt that her predecessor as minister, Radzi Jidin, did not address the issue directly, and Fadhlina said there would be no sweeping under the carpet of such complaints.
“We are willing to tackle this head-on too. Ever since I came in, there have been no more complaints,” she said.
“I think this is because the process of complaints is now well-established. We have that process and we resolve complaints at the grassroots level.
“We need a consistent campaign. I always believe in consistency.
“So, we have five women ministers and all of us will support each other and we continue to go down at the level of our respective ministries.
“When the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry talked about sexual harassment, the Youth and Sports Ministry responded with the Safe Sports Code, the Education Ministry responded with guidelines. So that’s how we work.
“We have to act straight away and people will see that we are consistent. It takes a combined effort to increase the trust of the people that we really walk the talk,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.