When responding to my proposal that the new law on child sexual crimes should include a provision to ban child marriages, the minister in charge of the bill Azalina Othman said the new law focuses more on sexual crimes, and not other elements like child marriages.
Azalina’s excuse is pathetic.
Having sex with underage girls is a CRIME as defined in Section 376 of the Penal Code. It is called statutory rape. So if the bill on sexual crimes against children does not deal with child marriages, we are missing the elephant in the room!
First Lady of Malaysia shared Malaysia’s experience in “overcoming” the problem of child marriage during a Ford Foundation breakfast meeting in New York in September 2015.
Child marriages were rare in Malaysia (which I strongly disagree), Rosmah Mansor said, as our legal framework circumvented and offered further effective measures to protect the children from being forced into child marriage.
She also said the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry set up a Task Force on Protection of Children in 2014, seeking among others, to raise the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18 in the Syariah Law, consistent with the Child Act.
But now, two and a half year after her beautiful speech to the Breakfast Panel on Girls not Bride at Ford Foundation in US, where are we to raise the marriage age for girls?
During her closing speech at the Jenayah Seksual Kanak-Kanak: Hentikan!! (Child Sexual Abuse: Stop It!!) seminar yesterday, Rosmah went off script to deliver an impassioned call for firmer action to be taken.
She added that similar seminars should be conducted at state level, and called on the wives of the Members of Parliament and Mentri Besars present to take up the cause.
But, what’s the point of calling on the wives of MPs to take up the cause when we the MPs are not invited and consulted?
Prime Minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor and Minister in the PM’s Department Azalina Othman all called for unity against child sexual abuse.
But now I want to throw the same request back to them, can we all be united in banning child marriage in Malaysia?
Will Permata Programmes patron Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, echo me, because “Every Child is Precious”?