Mothers rally to fight child sexual abuse
> Cacsa starts petition to seek harsher laws against predators
KUALA LUMPUR: Alarmed by the rising number of child sexual abuse cases, a group of mothers have come together to fight for justice and bring a change.
To start the ball rolling, they have formed the “Citizen Against Child Sexual Abuse” (Cacsa) group and have started a petition to seek support from members of parliament on the new bill on child protection.
“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 had prompted her and her friends to form Cacsa and get the support of local non- governmental organisations (NGOs). Cacsa is backed by NGOs like NGOhub, Protect & Save the Children and Voice of the Children.
“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 from getting away due to loopholes.
Citing an example, she said in the Penal Code, rape is defined as intentionally penetrating the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with a penis. 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 semenstained fingers which he inserted into her vagina.
Cacsa is on a signature campaign to get Malaysians from all walks of life to pledge their support and get the government to pass the bill.
The public can visit Cacsa’s Facebook page at https://m. facebook.com/cacsa.my/ to sign the petition. Hard copies of the petition will also be available at 7-Eleven outlets nationwide.