Stopping predators in their tracks
The Hentikan!! national seminar was a ground-breaking moment in Malaysia’s war against the child sexual crimes epidemic.
IT was an event several decades in the making. Child rights advocates, NGOs, lawyers, police officers, lawyers and educators in Malaysia have been diligently fighting child sexual crimes on their own for what must have seemed like an eternity, and they finally had their day to speak out.
The Jenayah Seksual Kanak-Kanak: Hentikan!! (Child Sexual Crimes: Stop It!!) national seminar on March 13-14 saw over 2,000 representatives of various stakeholders come together to discuss solutions to end the child sexual crimes epidemic in Malaysia.
Representatives of the highest levels of government came to hear them out, and they don’t get any higher than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
His wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (patron of the Permata Programmes, the main organisers of the seminar), closed the event with a rousing callto-arms for all levels of society to join the war against child sexual crimes, and pledged to help ensure the best solutions put forward are implemented.
It has been a long journey for us at R.AGE, from the launch of our Predator In My Phone investigation last year to being part of the Hentikan!! team. But, as we were constantly reminded during the seminar, this is just the beginning.
Countless issues were discussed throughout the seminar, from the new child sexual crimes bill (to be tabled in Parliament next week) to the need for better sex education, but here are the four biggest issues you should know about.