On 10 August, Fadhlina Sidek, the Minister of Education, was asked to comment about the alleged rape and sexual assault of a female student by three male students in Besut last February.

Stating that her ministry would not compromise on issues involving sexual offences, she said that her ministry was handling the matter by strengthening the Sexual Misconduct Management Guidelines for educational institutions.

So, when will the public be shown these Guidelines?

She warned that should her ministry find sexual misconduct occurring among Education Ministry members, then they would face action and be sacked from their jobs.

This was part of her “You touch, you go” disciplinary statement.

With reference to the alleged rape, she urged family members to continue with their reports, in an effort to control such behaviour.

She reminded them that although schools were under her ministry’s sphere of influence, with action and discipline under their purview, but for the cases that were committed outside school, then it would require the commitment of parents and the wider community to assume some responsibility and lodge their reports.

Does Fadhlina think her “You touch, you go” disciplinary statement is good enough?

It was last March that the minister first mooted the “You touch, you go” action plan.

It has been five months, and what does this entail?

She repeated this action plan on 12 August, and this time said that her ministry was “strengthening the Sexual Misconduct Management Guidelines for educational institutions.”

Why is ‘strengthening the guidelines’ taking five months? What has been changed or added to these guidelines? What are the original guidelines in the first place? Or was there none, and so there is now a mad rush to start one?

What also does she mean by ‘You touch, you go’? If the alleged rapist is the school official, is he fired and that’s it? If a student is the alleged rapist, is he expelled and that is the end of the story?

Rape is a crime and it needs proper investigation by the police, whether they occur in or outside of the school premises.

It is not sufficient to tell the perpetrator, that he is sacked. He must face the full force of the law.

Firing them is not good enough. Expelling students is also not good enough.

Merely making reports by family members is insufficient. She is naïve to think that this will ‘control such behaviour’. It won’t.

Is the minister not aware that there have been numerous allegations of sexual harassment by senior members of staff as well as by officials, not just in her ministry, but in many of the ministries and government departments? Is she aware that in most cases, a cover-up is involved and the allegations are swept under the carpet.

In Malaysia, a person’s reputation is everything and there is often a major effort to protect the perpetrator’s reputation, or the school or department’s image, rather than investigating the crime and ensuring the victim receives justice.

Fahdlina should know that what is reported is the tip of the iceberg.

What has been the outcome of the many reported cases of sexual assault and misconduct? For every case that is reported, how many victims suffer in silence?

Most times, the investigation starts off in a flurry of activity and heightened news coverage, but then it dies a silent death, either from inaction or perhaps, the authorities hope we may forget.

A few years ago (2021), teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam alleged that a male teacher made jokes about rape during a physical and health education lesson at school.

The teacher was talking about minors, and he had allegedly said, “If you want to rape someone, don’t rape those under 18, rape those above 18.”

The police told Ain that the teacher was ‘merely joking’ and to not take him seriously. If this is the police’s alleged reaction, then what hope is there for the rest of us if they themselves fail to take the crime seriously enough?

It was also highly irresponsible for Ain’s teachers and peers to turn on her mainly because they felt that her actions had tarnished the school’s reputation.

The education department and Minister of Education dragged their feet over Ain’s allegations.

They probably know that the longer a case is dragged on, the better the outlook for the offender.

To date, the Malaysian public has not been told of the outcome of this investigation. Was there one?

Allegations of sexual harassment are not confined to day government schools, but also involve boarding schools, rural schools, religious and tahfiz schools and institutions of higher education.

In the past, many rapist teachers have allegedly been transferred to rural locations, only for them to continue their evil crimes.

Coaches have raped their athletes but few want to believe the victims.

Much effort is made to protect the reputation of both the perpetrator and the school or educational establishment. 

Fadhlina is totally inept and cannot be trusted to handle sexual crimes in schools. She must go, or be sacked.

Sources:

1. Malaysiakini: Rape in school: Minister remains tough, urges families to report
2. Malaysiakini: ‘You touch, you go’: Sex offenders in schools to face the axe
3. Aljazeera: The 17-year-old exposing rape culture in Malaysian schools

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)