Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, State Assemblywoman for
Damansara Utama on Friday 3 February 2017 in Petaling Jaya.
We call upon Putrajaya
to give us a time frame as to when a proper Sex Offenders Registry can be established.
Many Malaysians are worried upon receiving the news that a serial
rapist Selva Kumar Subbia, who has served 24 years sentence in Canada, will be
deported back to Malaysia this coming Sunday. He was suspected of violating as
many as 1000 women and girls and was described as “the worst offender with the
highest risk ever” by Andrew Laut the chairman of the
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada hearing .[i]
Upon the breaking of the news, many women groups once again urged
Putrajaya to establish a proper sex offender registry, which purpose is to
ensure proper monitoring of sex offenders.
This is not the first time that Putrajaya is urged on this matter. In
fact, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri agreed with the
call of such registry back in May 2015 after public uproar when convicted
student Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin, who owned over 30,000 videos and photographs
of child pornography, was returning to Malaysia[ii]. What
is her follow-up on that?
Picture Source: Free Malaysia Today
Before we discuss further on sex offenders registry, which
can only be implemented after Putrajaya establishes it, for immediate action,
we call upon the police to closely monitor the whereabouts of high-risk sex
offenders such as Selva Kumar and Nur Fitri to ensure the safety of women and
girls.
Yesterday Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan gave
luke-warm reply that while he agreed with such registry, there were concerns
that Sex Offender Registry would infringe the rights of the sex offenders. We
would like to remind the minister that the rights of women and girls in
Malaysia for a safe environment is equally if not more important than the
rights of the sex offenders. His concern is valid, in fact, what is most
important to us is what type of Sex Offender Registry legislation actually reduce
recidivism. But after so many years of “studying about the matter”, Putrajaya still has no clue as to how to have
a proper Sex Offender Registry, which take into account human rights and
recidivism? That is unacceptable.
Meanwhile, we would like to remind the minister of
Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim that it’s
been six months since the Child Act Amendment 2016 was gazetted[iii].
This amendment includes Child Registry that contains records of convicts who
committed crimes against children including sexual crime. We read yesterday that her ministry is
meeting with the police to finalize the child sex offenders registry “very
soon”[iv].
After 6 months that the law was gazetted, we would really like to know how soon
is her “very soon”?
With that, we call for quick actions from the three
ministers – Nancy Shukri, Nur Jazlan and Rohani Karim, to get Sex Offenders
Registry done once and for all. We urge Putrajaya not to dilly-dally on the
matter anymore and give us a time frame as to when we can expect this to be
done.
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PS: Here's the government's response to the statement: 1. http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ministry-welcome-call-to-expedite-sex-offenders-registry
2. http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/02/05/child-sex-offender-registry-up-and-running/
