National Registry for convicted sex offenders must be implemented soon

PETALING JAYA: The national registry to track convicted sex offenders should be implemented with immediate effect, said former Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam.
"The registry has been agreed and passed in Parliament in the recent amended Child Act," he said, adding that the government should proceed without haste and implement it as stated in the Act.
"The Act was amended to include a child sex offenders' registry. The purpose is because there is no system in place to keep track of the offenders," he said.
He added that potential predators could already be in Malaysia unknown to the authorities and exposed to children through their work with them.
Nayagam, who is also the chairman of Suriana Welfare Society, said previously there had been meetings with other non-governmental organisations and the police to have the registry implemented.
"Now, with the Act amended, it is high time to take charge. It is fine to keep the privacy of those named in the list, but the child has the same right to be protected too," the child advocate said.
Ipoh General Hospital paediatrician Dr Amar Singh added that actual figures of reported child abuse are between 4,000 and 5,000 annually, which he says is a small figure.
The figures are also classified under the Official Secrets Act, he said, adding that according to a community-based survey by him, some 750,000 are abused annually.
Meanwhile, Vijayakumari Pillai, who is a children's court adviser in Klang Valley, said another aspect that must be stressed is for police investigations to be thorough so that every offender charged is convicted.
She noted that as sexual assault cases take two to three years to be heard, the victim may forget important information, thus allowing the offender to be acquitted.
They were was commenting today on theSun's front page story titled "Sex Registry Hitch" where Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed revealed that the Attorney-General's Chambers had reservation that the registry may infringe on the privacy of people listed.