Child abuse is the world’s greatest silent crime. Empower your child to say No and report it.
– QuotesGram
This is a very serious matter. The numbers do not lie.
To write about this subject of sexual crimes against children, I have read several reports on the issue in order 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 per cent 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 per cent, 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 are 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.
Why, we talk so much of progress and development and aimed to be a “developed nation” but we have so many “sick” people in our midst who are raping children and worse, committing incest. We should be totally ashamed of these fellow Malaysians.
Rape and incest are deeply disturbing and abhorrent crimes that inflict immense physical and psychological harm on the victims.
They violate an individual’s autonomy, dignity and fundamental human rights. Beyond the immediate trauma, survivors often grapple with long-term emotional scars and struggle to rebuild their lives.
Thankfully, we have some government agencies, NGOs and volunteers helping victims but there is only as much as they can do.
I’m focussing on this topic this week as a follow-up to the March 1 statement by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution 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 per cent 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 and he has rightly acted 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.
There is another fact which 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.
“For every 100 perpetrators, 70 percent are from the B40 group. What does that mean? It is done by people of low economic status.
“For the M40 group, it is 24 percent for every 100 perpetrators, while the breakdown by race shows that 67 percent of the perpetrators of the crime are Malays.
“Now is not the time to show laziness and to keep blaming because it is a shared responsibility to overcome the crime,” he said.
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. survivors are believed, supported, and empowered to seek justice and healing.
Let us all work together and help our child victims of abuse to seek justice, healing and move on. It is an onerous task but if it is something worth doing, this is certainly one.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
