More Women Police Officers Necessary to Enforce Domestic Violence Act.

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More Women Police Officers Necessary to Enforce Domestic Violence Act.

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Media Statement
by M. Kula Segaran
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(Ipoh, Wednesday): NGO’s including AWAM have complained that the Domestic Violence Act 1994 (DVA) has not been very effective in protecting women and children against violence in the home.

They have called for the Act to be amended to make domestic violence(DV) a crime. We fully support that. So long as domestic violence is not made a crime, so long it will treated as merely a family squabble that does not need urgent and serious police action of protection against the victims of domestic violence, whether they are female and male.

Women Affairs Minister claims that there is nothing wrong with the DVA 1994; she thinks that better enforcement will do the job.

We do not agree with her. Its a fact that in overwhelming number of cases of DV the victims are women. Hence it is absolutely necessary to have more women police officers to help enforce the Act. It is not enough to have the so called sensitive male police officers; the main and persistent complaint of women victims is that men police officer are never gender - sensitive enough.

I would like therefore call on the Government to increase the recruitment of women police officers significantly in order to help enforce the Act.

Only when women victims of DV completely comfortable with and confident of the police and other officers dealing with them after a case of DV will cases of DV be meaningfully tackled and reduced.

This is urgent and of public importance. The Government should act immediately on this.

(24/8/2005)

* M. Kula Segaran, MP for Ipoh Barat and DAP National Vice Chairman