Mothers rally to fight child sexual abuse

KUALA LUMPUR: Alarmed by the rising number of child sexual abuse, a group of mothers have come together to fight this injustice and bring a change.
To start the ball rolling, they formed a "Citizen Against Child Sexual Abuse" (Cacsa) and started a petition to push members of parliament to support the new Bill being presented on child sexual abuse.
"We are happy the government has realised the need for better laws to protect children in Malaysia. The Bill is timely and we hope it would seal the gaps in the law. We are alarmed by the number of child sexual abuse cases in the country. This makes us wonder how safe our children are," Cacsa spokesman Mimie Loke told theSun.
Loke said news reports on crimes committed against children prompted her and her friends to form Cacsa and get the support of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Cacsa is backed by prominent NGOs like NGOhub, Protect & Save the Children and Voice of the Children and RAGE.
"We hope the Bill will cover areas such as harsher penalties for child predators, child sexual grooming, child pornography, sexual offences on children and child trafficking," Loke who is also legally trained, said.
Loke hopes the Bill will address the need for laws to be more comprehensive to prevent perpetrators getting away due to loopholes.
Citing an example, she said in the Penal Code, there must be penetration by a penis into a vagina to secure a rape conviction.
This had allowed Bunya Jalong, 60, from Sarawak in the "finger-rape" case to walk away free of any rape conviction because according to him, the 14-year old girl was impregnated by his semen-stained fingers inserted into her vagina.
"We need new laws to tackle many sexual abuses that are not covered legally. There is a need to have laws against child sexual grooming as it is not covered in Malaysian law and thus, it is not regarded as a crime," said Loke.
Cacsa is on signature campaign to get Malaysians from all walks of life, irrespective of race or religion, to pledge their support and get the government to pass the Bill.
The signed petition will be handed to the MPs.
It is hoped when the Bill is tabled in Parliament, it will receive the MPs' support to pass it.
The public can visit Cacsa's Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/cacsa.my/ for further information and to sign the petition.
Hard copies of the petition will also be available in 7-Eleven outlets nationwide.