Y.A.B. Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia & Cabinet of Malaysia
Office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia
Main Block, Perdana Putra Building
Federal Government Administrative Centre
62502 Putrajaya
MALAYSIA

Dear YAB Prime Minister,

A CALL FOR A NATIONAL AND REGIONAL CONSENSUS ON A LONG-TERM ACTION PLAN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES

1. On 17 September 2007, the family of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin received news that a body was found in Petaling Jaya. DNA tests later confirmed that the broken and sexually-assaulted body was that of their daughter - then only 8 years old - who went missing on 20 August 2007. [1]

2. Up to November 2007, 10-year-old Harirawati was raped and murdered in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Not two weeks later, Nurul Huda Abdul Ghani, then also 10, was raped and murdered in Johor. It was reported that around July 2007, two girls aged five and six respectively were abducted and molested in the Kampung Baru area in separate events, not too far from Wangsa Maju. [2]

3. Towards the end of 2007, around 6,240 children and teenagers have been reported missing since the beginning of the year. Only 67% of them have returned safely. Kidnapping by strangers were most fatal, whereby sexual abuse is not uncommon, with some reports suggesting they were killed within the first three (3) hours of kidnapping. [2]

4. In the same year, 14-year-old Timothy Lim also presented a strong case that "[the] Government [should] implement policies and far-reaching [programmes] to foster greater community responsibility to protect children and adolescents like [him] from violence". [3]

5. In January 2013, the father of late Nurin Jazlin once again pleaded for more concrete steps to protect children from predators after the missing case of William Yau Zhen Zhong. Like many similar cases, William's mother received a phone call with demands of sexual nature. His fate was also regrettable. [4]

6. Equally alarming and appalling was that a 60-year-old-man, who caused his colleague's then 14 year-old daughter to conceive a child, walked free after the Court of Appeal found his four charges of rape unsound on 7 May 2015. What was even more perplexing was that DNA testing proved he was the father of the baby.

Until the written grounds of the Court of Appeal decision is publicly available, it is unclear why there has been such an outcome for what would otherwise be a very straight-forward statutory rape case. [29]

7. These tragic incidents, sadly, are quite common in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the Malaysian public lack the necessary awareness to come together in times of great need to tackle similar cases, often putting all burdens on already-stretched enforcement agencies.

8. The mass hysteria among Malaysians – which is often followed by little or no action – again became evident after Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin was found guilty in the UK for the possession of child pornography on 30 April 2015. [5]

Funnily enough - but at the same time very much regrettable - the public was fixated with punishing him; coming up with hashtag #NoSecondChance for online campaign; even setting up an online petition to urge MARA to retract an earlier-issued-offer of some sort of 'second chance' for Fitri Azmeer. [6]

9. However, this mass hysteria for more punishment, no forgiveness and no mercy have missed a finer but more important point: that Fitri Azmeer would be back in Malaysia in as early as 4 weeks from the sentencing date i.e. by early June 2015.

8. Upon enquiry with notable human rights lawyer by concerned and socially-responsible citizens, it was determined that Malaysia lacks specific laws to tackle people with predatory behaviour on children, or any measure of child protection necessary to effectively prevent similar cases above from recurring. [7]

10. The Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Noor Rashid Ibrahim even conceded that Malaysia lacks the necessary tools. People like Fitri Azmeer, who was charged with possession of child pornography, or worse offenders who have directly caused harm to children, would very much be at large. [8]

11. The late Little Nurin Jazlin's father even issued an urgent appeal for the police to come up with extensive monitoring of people with tendencies to engage in sexual predatory practices, especially on children. [9]

12. An informal preliminary engagement with a member of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association suggests that psychiatric experts could possibly take an active role in liaising with law enforcement agencies and suggest appropriate risk mitigation measures for sex offenders, especially those with paedophilia [10]. This is in the view that paedophilia is one of the many sexual disorders defined under DSM5 & ICD10. [28]

More specifically, forensic psychiatrists – of whom there are ONLY THREE (3) on the National Specialist Register of Malaysia – could advise on appropriate treatment programmes and risk management regimes for people convicted of similar offenses, or have displayed strong behaviours that carry similar risks. [22]

13. The Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim also made a remark or a statement that her ministry recently held a town hall meeting to discuss ways to strengthen existing laws, and is also in the process of gathering feedback from the public. This includes the setting up of a child sex offenders list [11]. This is a VERY MUCH WELCOME move.

However, such actions must also directly address other cases, some of which are violent and fatal. This must be done publicly, widely and involving as many stakeholders as possible; and ideally under a parliamentary select committee. We do not want a similar repeat of these recent cases:
- Pembantu kedai didakwa rogol, liwat dua budak [12]
- Isteri dalam pantang, bapa liwat bayi 23 hari [13]
- Pelajar tahfiz kena liwat ketika suai kenal [14]
- Ustaz dipercayai liwat pelajar ditahan [15]

14. Looking at all the above, it becomes evident that radical steps need to be taken to break away from past reactive trends which - more often than not - do not sustain enough momentum to produce meaningful changes.

15. With that in mind, we, the signatories of this letter, hereby demand that the Government of the Federation of Malaysia take the following steps to meet or exceed the followings.

(A) To form an inquiry or a parliamentary select committee to review existing laws and legal frameworks on the protection of children.

(B) To produce a 'Green Paper' and seek input from stakeholders, including but not limited to:
- Human rights organisations;
- Charitable organisations dealing with childrens;
- Non-governmental organisations dealing with children issues like child poverty, child prostitution, child kidnapping, human trafficking and child abuse;
- Shelters and rehabilitation facilities for children including runaways;
- Educational institutions that accommodate children away from home such as boarding schools and organisations that organise ad hoc educational programmes like camping trips; as well as
- Other organisations that have knowledge and expertise on issues affecting children's safety and welfare such as the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children [17] [18], United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) [16] [24], The Protection Project [19] [20], and Amnesty International [23].

(C) To translate the findings of such inquiries into a 'White Paper' and invite substantive challenge and input from organisations such as political parties, Bar Council, and other relevant stakeholders.

(D) To introduce and fully implement a comprehensive legislative and regulatory frameworks on the protection of children to be in line with, if not exceeding, that of developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and Germany [21].

This includes but not limited to:
- The introduction of sex offenders register with a special category for child sex offenders. This is usually for life.
- The introduction of restriction orders similar to UK's Anti-Social Behaviour Order to restrict access of such offenders to children or other vulnerable groups.
- The introduction and implementation of suitable monitoring tools such as ankle tags using GPS technology, on top of conventional methods of daily, weekly or fortnightly in-person reporting.
- To introduce a robust and well-resourced psychological and psychiatric expert unit to evaluate, monitor and suggest suitable treatments for offenders or other measures necessary in consultation with other stakeholders. This may include training to produce more psychiatric experts especially forensic psychiatrists.

A sample 'best practices' introduced by The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies [20] call for compliance with, and if possible exceeding the following international standards:
- The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its two optional protocols from the year 2000;
- The Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography (OPSC); and
- The Optional Protocol to the CRC on the involvement of children in armed conflict (OPAC)

(E) To convene an emergency international congress of Muslim scholars to seek an Islamic consensus on issues including but not limited to:

(i) Child marriage;
(ii) Child custody;
(iii) Protection of women from violence, specifically in a domestic environment, and the protection of children from exposure to such violence;
(iv) Protection of children from domestic violence;
(v) Very tight regulation on female circumcision and a complete ban on other forms of female genital mutilation;
(vi) Permissibility of the State to remove children from unsafe environments and place them in a safer alternative;
(vii) Educating children – male and female alike – on the right to education and a safe upbringing;
(viii) Educating children and parents – male and female alike – on women's rights, protection and safety from abuse, sex and reproductive health education, and gender equality.

All the above must be in line with Islamic values, although some adaptations may be needed to harmonise such findings with current standards in developed countries.

(F) As part of the above measures, to enhance the efficacy and efficiency of the legal and regulatory framework, including but not limited to harmonising the Criminal Procedure Code (Act 593), Penal Code (Act 574), Child Act 2001 (Act 611) and Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission Act 1998 (Act 589). A simple and easily enforceable framework would greatly empower the relevant agencies to tackle the above issues effectively.

This also extends to persuading each Malaysian State to update their religious and native laws to bring them in line with the findings.

(G) Most importantly, in the same spirit of the letter so passionately written by Timothy Lim in 2007 [3], to make the necessary policy alterations – perhaps outside the legislative and regulatory frameworks – to promote the followings:

(i) To empower NGO's in advocating public concerns to those in authority, as well as generating awareness of communal and parental responsibility.

(ii) To encourage the media to voluntarily come up with a framework on reporting of child safety-related news and issues, including child abduction, missing persons and child abuse. There should also be regular updates, reporting and campaign on child safety.

(iii) To implement policies and far-reaching programmes to foster greater communal responsibility to protect children and adolescents from violence. This includes schools; places of worship; social, residential and communal associations; school-based clubs, associations and societies like boy scouts and girl guides; RELA; and others.

This is important because safety starts at home, and no amount of laws can protect our children without the highest level of cooperation of the basic units of our society i.e. individuals and families.

(H) To introduce realistic and measurable key milestones or key performance indicators (KPI) to monitor the implementation of the above measures within THE NEXT 10 YEARS. This is a reasonable timeframe, especially given that Malaysia aims to become a developed nation by 2020.

The civil society can be tasked with the responsibility to conduct an independent audit of these KPI's and suggest alterations or improvements as the nation moves forward.

(I) To extend the same to other countries in an advisory and advocating capacity, especially in the two networks where Malaysia can exert significant influence:
- Association of Southeast Asian Nations [25], especially via the The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) [26]
- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation [27]

(J) In the short run, to introduce any necessary measure within the Government's existing executive powers to address Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin's case or other similar cases:
- To evaluate his psychiatric condition;
- To compel him to undergo any necessary course of treatment based on professional findings;
- To rehabilitate him and reintegrate him into the wider society;
- To use any power – current and future – to impose ongoing monitoring and rehabilitative programmes in order to protect Malaysian children from any potential harm.

16. We fully recognise that all the above are an uphill task. Therefore, we also call for all Malaysians to contribute in any way possible, to make the above a reality in line with Recommendation (G) above.

17. Dear YAB Prime Minister, we thank you for your kind attention. As the leader of our nation, we look up to your leadership in these dire times. With that in mind, we look forward to hearing a favourable reply from you.

Yours sincerely,

THE UNDERSIGNED
malaysia.dialogue+childprotect@gmail.com

NOTE:

[1] http://www.thestar.com.my/story/?file=%2F2007%2F9%...
[2] Various sources.
[3] http://www.unicef.org/malaysia/news_7404.html
[4] http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/01/26/N...
[5] http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/london-imperial-college-s...
[6] http://www.thepetitionsite.com/556/797/477/demand-...
[7] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/articl...
[8] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/articl...
[9] http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article...
[10] Undisclosed source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
[11] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/articl...
[12] http://www.hmetro.com.my/node/27397
[13] http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/bahasa/article/...
[14] http://www2.bharian.com.my/articles/Pelajartahfizk...
[15] http://www2.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles/Ustazd...
[16] http://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/transpa...
[17] http://www.icmec.org/
[18] http://www.icmec.org/en_X1/icmec_publications/
Annotated_CP_Model_Law_Jan_2013_Final_w_cover.pdf
[19] http://www.protectionproject.org/
[20] http://www.protectionproject.org/wp-content/upload...
[21] http://kinderschutzfonds.ch/wp-content/uploads/Ber...
[22] https://www.nsr.org.my/
[23] http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/childrens-human-ri...
[24] http://www.unicef.org/protection/
[25] http://www.asean.org/
[26] http://aichr.org/
[27] http://www.oic-oci.org/oicv2/home/?lan=en
[28] Yakeley, Jessica & Woo, Heather, Paraphilias and paraphilic disorders: diagnosis, assessment and management, Advances in psychiatric treatment (2014), vol. 20, 202–213 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp. 113.011197, year 2014
[29] http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/a...