More than two days have passed since Lim Yi Wei, Jamaliah Jamaluddin and Maria Chin Abdullah- all three elected representatives in our democracy- reported incidents of open and personal online sexual harassment against them.
Fellow elected representatives from the federal opposition and even a back bencher from the government block have openly condemned these heinous, cowardice and criminal acts. Yet the silence from members of the current cabinet and their deputies regardless of gender have been and continues to be deafening.
I stand in solidarity with these comrades and friends of mine, who work tirelessly serving their constituents, their States, and our nation. They deserve dignity, respect and nothing less for the work that they do. And just like any other equal citizen of our beloved nation, it is their most basic right to be free from harassment and assault of any kind.
Of course, these attacks on democratically elected representatives are equally as abhorrent as those experienced by normal citizens all over the country. Regardless of the intent of these attacks, whether they be intimidatory, in jest, politically motivated or personal in nature, it is unacceptable and unequivocally wrong by any standards, culture or religion.
The Senior Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, Minister for Communications and Multimedia should immediately state clearly their stand on this issue, and make public the actions they plan to take to mitigate this threat against our nation, society and our citizens.
And if that is too much to ask for, stating the government’s stand on online sexual harassment or any social media hate speech must be the bare minimum to protect the already tarnished name of the Malaysian government under Perikatan Nasional. The presumed condoning of such crimes implied by the government’s silence on the matter is gravely worrying.
For democratically elected representatives to be victims of such crime, yet the facebook account of the perpetrator to be still active and still displaying the posting that is criminal in nature; something is seriously deficient with either the law or the enforcement of the law.
Social media platforms should also provide some clarity on their policies on hateful and/or criminal content. However, there seems to be a lack of enforcement of their community standards and guidelines. Now is a good time and opportunity to show their seriousness, at least to their Malaysian users.
The nation must stand strong, firm and united against such cyber-social terrorism. This is a matter of policy, law and order, and protection of Malaysians lest we lose lives from the impact of online harassment. The government must take action; breaking their silence would be a good place to start.