PETALING JAYA: The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG), Bulan Sisters and Pertubuhan Pembangunan Kendiri Wanita dan Gadis (Women:girls) have chided National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan (pix) for his comments on sexual harassment in schools.
In an interview over Astro Awani on May 5, Tan spoke on behalf of the union for its opposition to the National School Walkout Day (NSWD).
Tan noted that NSWD was being unfair to all 450,000 teachers nationwide by projecting the image of teachers “lurking around and harming students” and “waiting to make and crack jokes about rape”.
“Whilst we agree with Tan in that not all teachers are perpetrators, he refuses to understand that NSWD aims to raise public awareness of the systemic nature of sexual harassment, rape and abuse in schools,” JAG said in a statement.
“It also gives voice to survivors and other civil society stakeholders alike to demand for change. Many teachers are non-perpetrators but practice silence and inaction, instead of immediately reporting those who were perpetrators,” they added.
Furthermore JAG said NUTP’s focus on reputation damage control connotes a disturbing need to “save face” for the teaching profession, at the expense of the students who are meant to be protected by these perpetrators.
Tan had additionally questioned if sexual harassment, period spot checks and rape was indeed a widespread problem, and requested for statistics and data on case reporting to substantiate the issue.
To this JAG said “questioning if the issue is indeed ‘widespread’ allows it to happen quietly in lieu of creating sound protection policies for those who are vulnerable”.
“This also brings to light the concerning lack of understanding amongst some in the teaching profession about the issue of sexual harassment, which comes hand in hand with the challenge of under-reporting among survivors,” they explaiend.
This is due to fear of reprisal, insensitivity by figures of authority, especially the immediate reaction of disbelief - as aptly portrayed by Tan, they said - and a lack of survivor-centric redress mechanisms.
“We would also like to point out to Tan and the NUTP that rape culture is not an all-or-none concept. Rape cases do not need to happen in every school and not everyone needs to be ‘joking about rape’ in order for a society to normalise rape. Sexist attitudes that sanction misogyny and objectification of women’s bodies are the primary yet invisible culprits,” they said.
“Moreover, these attitudes not only drive perpetrators to make rape jokes or worse, actually inflict rape, but also bystanders to not support survivors and refuse to hold perpetrators accountable for their violations,” they added.
Providing statistics, JAG noted that between 2013 and 2017, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) had a total of 1,218 sexual harassment cases, which did not reflect the statistic of one in three Malaysian women having experienced sexual harassment as depicted by the YouGov Omnibus research in 2019.
“Victim-blaming remains a significant socio-cultural barrier, whereby survivors’ voices are suppressed because they are often blamed for the incidents instead. Judging existing data as ‘inadequate’ to evaluate whether the culture of sexual harassment and rape in schools is widespread, discounts the weight of survivor stories,” they stressed.
“One case of sexual harassment and abuse experienced by a student in school is one case too many. We do note that since the issue of period checks was brought to light, All Women’s Action Society’s (Awam) Telenita hotline has received eight sexual harassment cases in schools, of which six were inflicted on students by teachers,” they said.
The National Education Philosophy emphasises holistic individual development, whereby students grow to be “intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced” individuals with high moral standards that contribute to the nation.
“Being educated in school environments that are free of sexual harassment, rape and abuse is key in enabling well rounded students. We feel that It is high time the NUTP bucks up and properly embraces this philosophy,” JAG said.
