The allegations of sodomy in religious or state-run boarding schools or ‘residential homes for children’ have occurred for decades. The Global Ikhwan scandal is not the first, nor the last.

Previously, some of the perpetrators were punished, many are not.

Similarly, many cases of sodomy, rape or sexual abuse of children go unrecorded.

These children’s homes are the cesspit of evil. Instead of being a place of protection for the children, especially those who are illegitimate, or for babies who were dumped, or children whose parents have abandoned them, these homes are where paedophiles operate.

In these houses of horror, the wardens and their co-workers have free rein to commit their vile activities.

There is inadequate supervision; no one is accountable and no one takes responsibility for the wrongdoings.

The warden acts like ‘a fox in a henhouse’, or as the Malay saying goes, ‘Musang disuruh jaga reban ayam’.

The abuses to which the young children are subject are horrific. Crimes like sodomy, rape, and inappropriate touching are accompanied by mental and physical torture, like beating a child’s hand with a rotan, amidst severe scoldings.

Young children are made to perform vile acts on the adult for his own sexual gratification.

In some cases, the child is sworn to secrecy with the words, ‘God will punish you if you dare tell anyone’.

The children are threatened with more severe beatings if they were to complain to another adult about the sexual abuse.

One former social worker said acts of sodomy committed on girls are done because most of the young girls who have started puberty, won’t then get pregnant.

Put simply, the Global Ikhwan scandal occurred because the perpetrators in previous crimes of sodomy, rape and child abuse were never really punished.

As the men, it is mostly perpetrated by men, were able to escape scot-free; others who were quietly committing these vile acts then took it as a sign of weakness of the authorities.

The most that the perpetrators received was the equivalent of a rap on the knuckles.

What is a few years jail and fine, with whipping, when the lives and futures of children are destroyed and they suffer mental and physical health issues for the rest of their lives?

Sexual crimes often get swept under the carpet.

If these involve a religious home, the backlash and shock that men steeped in religion had actually committed these crimes are very difficult for the community to accept.

Moreover, like in most Asian families, the tendency is to hide these crimes from the public ostensibly to protect the families or the victims themselves from public shame and humiliation.

The true reason is more likely that the management of the home is trying to avoid being charged for negligence or for failing in their duty of care towards their charges.

In 2012, Muhammad Khairul Hafiz Abdullah established an NGO called Pertubuhan Kebajikan dan Sosial Malaysia (PERBAK) to fight for justice for the victims of former residents of a state-run orphanage, and to protect the safety of children in government orphanages run by the Social Welfare Department (JKM).

The former PERBAK president has assisted thousands of former JKM care children by helping them with applications for MyKads, citizenship, employment, food and monthly donations to help them survive.

Khairul’s story began in Mentakab, Pahang.

He was abandoned as a baby on 31 January 1987, and handed over to the Welfare Department where he was eventually adopted by a Chinese family.

In 1994, he was abused by his adopted father and then placed in the Tunku Budriah orphanage in Cheras.

When orphans reach the age of 12 years old, boys are sent to the state orphanage in Melaka, while girls are sent to the state orphanage in Kangar, Perlis.

Khairul was sodomised at the Melaka state orphanage, and at the age of 14, he ran away to Kuala Lumpur, where he lived on the streets and suffered depression and a loss of identity.

He made several police reports about the abuse at the Melaka orphanage, but no one believed him.

He was threatened by the warden and his fellow workers, but again no one wanted to investigate his allegations.

He approached a local author to write his story and the book (Anak Lorong) was published in 2017. It was subsequently banned by the government and all copies destroyed.

In 2004/2005, he returned to the Welfare Department to try and find out more about his background.

He was denied an identity card (MyKad) and was stateless. Without an IC, he could not find work and was denied medical treatment in hospital because he was stateless and only provided with temporary papers.

He tried to get publicity about his predicament and his allegations were eventually published by the papers.

He also requested that the warden and other officers be punished.

Khairul’s objective was to demand justice for himself and other orphan boys and girls who were sexually abused.

When he returned to meet the then Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, he was denied access.

Instead, the minister told reporters Khairul had been paid to badmouth the Welfare Department.

The then minister claimed that the warden and officers had already been punished, but Khairul alleged that the warden was merely transferred elsewhere.

He also alleged that the cover-up was to protect the warden who is related to a high-ranking official in the state.

To this day, Khairul and all the other former residents at the state orphanage have been denied justice.

When they are 18-years-old, orphans have to leave the orphanage.

Many have no MyKad or other papers. They are stateless. They cannot get hospital treatment, find jobs or get married.

They are at the mercy of unscrupulous employers who will pay them pitiful wages and treat them with contempt.

Many former inmates suffer severe depression, some have turned to drugs, a few have committed suicide.

Meanwhile, Khairul’s police reports are ignored and he and his family have received many threats of violence.

When the Global Ikhwan scandal broke, some Malaysians assumed this was probably a one-off major scandal.

Khairul wants to remind them that this is not the case. With two tiers of justice, ‘little people’ like him rarely receive any (justice).

His previous approaches allegedly to a few local children’s rights NGO and a global children’s NGO were unsuccessful. Their help was not forthcoming.

Why are we betraying our children?

There is no political will to help them or even to believe their story, while NGOs are scared to act.

Sources:

1. Malaysiakini: ‘No birth certs for orphans in gov’t welfare homes’
2. Malaysiakini: Death threats for activist in stateless orphans expose
3. Malaysiakini: Isu liwat dah selesai, jangan tularkan lagi, kata menteri
4. Free Malaysia Today: NGO threatens to sue over claims it was paid to tarnish welfare dept
5. Free Malaysia Today: Former welfare child recalls slave-like abuse at foster home
6. GoodReads: Anak Lorong by Nor Zailina Nordin

(Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.)