I find Rozhan Othman’s March 17 article titled “From canteen to socks: Looking for a cure or sambal belacan” poignant and timely.
The professor wrote about the sock-gate controversy and angry Muslims, reminding them that the Prophet Muhammad would have advised “calm” when dealing with a difficult situation.
He also chastised certain Malay politicians, saying that they lack ideas about the agenda they should fight for and that their level of thinking is only limited to socks and school canteens.
What really resonated with me in Rozhan’s piece was his take on the social ills plaguing the Malay community which seems to have been largely ignored by those so-called leaders with a Malay-Muslim image.
“These leaders are generally silent about the problems that plague the Malay-Muslim community”, he said.
“The problem of high drug addiction among the Malays, the problem of mahram incest that often occurs among the Malays, the problem of sexual crimes against children, the involvement of the Malays in corruption and the backwardness of the Malays in mastering science and technology did not get the attention of the experts.
“On the other hand, the issues they like to play with are flight attendant uniforms, whether bak kut teh or gulai patin tempoyak should be heritage food and the opening of school canteens during Ramadan.
“It is obvious that the level of thinking of these politicians is too shallow to think beyond such issues”, Rozhan, a former management professor at several universities, sighed.
I’m glad that the professor brought up the issue of sexual crimes against children, a subject which I have touched on in a Sarawak daily recently.
Following that, a federal minister sent me a note, thanking me for highlighting child sex crimes as the cases were increasing and the government was taking the matter very seriously.
In turn, I have to say “thank you” to Rozhan for broaching the subject as well in his article.
Numbers don’t lie
I think it would not be way off for me to say that Rozhan’s remarks were directed at PAS leaders and followers as the sexual crimes against children were particularly high in the three PAS-controlled states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah.
Here, to follow up on Rozhan’s take, I have to tell PAS people that the numbers do not lie. I want them to know that I have actually read several reports on the issue to obtain accurate figures and this is one of them. The statistics are alarming indeed.
A Jan 1 article in Sinar Daily, quoting a recent report by the Statistics Department, revealed a disturbing increase in child sexual crimes in Malaysia.
In 2022, there were 1,621 reported cases, a 9.5 percent jump from 1,481 cases in 2021.
The report noted that all categories witnessed an increase, except for sexual harassment and molestation cases.
Among the total reported cases, rape saw the highest increase at 13.7 percent, with 1,277 cases recorded in 2022 compared to 1,123 in 2021.
"Incest ranked as the second-highest reported crime, with 235 cases in 2022 versus 222 in the previous year," the report read.
That rape and incest top the list of sex crimes against children is indeed very disturbing. This is happening right at home in Malaysia, our very own country which we are supposed to be proud of. We want to believe that such heinous crimes do not happen here.
Rape and incest are deeply disturbing and abhorrent crimes that inflict immense physical and psychological harm on the victims.
I took on this topic as a follow-up to the March 1 statement by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in which he disclosed that “Kelantan is one of the states with the highest number of cases involving sexual crimes against children”.
This is despite the east coast state having its own syariah criminal code, he added, in response to Sik MP Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman’s suggestion that the country adopt syariah law to prevent cases of child sex crimes.
“He (Tarmizi) said the increase in sexual crimes against children is because of the failure of the current legislation due to the lack of syariah enactments.
“This syariah criminal code was made in Kelantan. However, Kelantan is among the states with the highest number of cases,” Saifuddin said.
Citing police statistics, he said sexual crimes against children are on the rise in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah when compared to 2022 and 2023.
At the same time, they were decreasing in Penang, he added.
On Feb 29, Tarmizi attributed the increase in sexual crimes involving minors to the inability of civil courts to handle such cases.
He proposed the enactment of syariah laws in every state as well as the amendment of the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to prevent such crimes.
However, Saifuddin rejected Tarmizi’s view as baseless, reiterating that “I speak in terms of numbers because numbers don’t lie and in Kelantan, 98 percent are Muslim.
“This disease does not stop by saying it results from not implementing the syariah criminal code,” Saifuddin said.
Many must be glad that the home minister has put the PAS lawmaker in his place and that is where he should be.
Saifuddin is also a Muslim and he wants to be upfront and honest, rightly acting in that fashion. Syariah laws will not stop perpetrators from committing sexual crimes against children. The “holier-than-thou” people in PAS should take note of that.
Difficult fact to accept
There is another fact that PAS must also accept and acknowledge, no matter how difficult and shameful it is.
According to the home minister, statistics show the B40 group commits the most sexual crimes against children.
Well said and articulated, Saifuddin. About time that a senior minister laid bare the hard truth to some of those hypocrites in PAS.
Finally, I think that as a society, we must strive to create a culture that prioritises consent, respects bodily autonomy, and condemns all forms of sexual violence.
Let us all work together and help our child victims of abuse to seek justice, heal and move on.
PAS leaders, members and supporters should take full responsibility for what is happening in their backyard, and they should take the lead in seeking justice and healing for the abused victims. - Mkini
FRANCIS PAUL SIAH is a veteran Sarawak editor and heads the Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS). He can be reached at sirsiah@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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