Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Set a Timeframe for Sex Offenders Registry

Media Statement by Yeo Bee Yin, State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama on Friday 3 February 2017 in Petaling Jaya.

We call upon Putrajaya to give us a time frame as to when a proper Sex Offenders Registry can be established.

Many Malaysians are worried upon receiving the news that a serial rapist Selva Kumar Subbia, who has served 24 years sentence in Canada, will be deported back to Malaysia this coming Sunday. He was suspected of violating as many as 1000 women and girls and was described as “the worst offender with the highest risk ever” by Andrew Laut the chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada hearing .[i]

Upon the breaking of the news, many women groups once again urged Putrajaya to establish a proper sex offender registry, which purpose is to ensure proper monitoring of sex offenders.  This is not the first time that Putrajaya is urged on this matter. In fact, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri agreed with the call of such registry back in May 2015 after public uproar when convicted student Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin, who owned over 30,000 videos and photographs of child pornography, was returning to Malaysia[ii]. What is her follow-up on that?  

Picture Source: Free Malaysia Today


Before we discuss further on sex offenders registry, which can only be implemented after Putrajaya establishes it, for immediate action, we call upon the police to closely monitor the whereabouts of high-risk sex offenders such as Selva Kumar and Nur Fitri to ensure the safety of women and girls.

Yesterday Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan gave luke-warm reply that while he agreed with such registry, there were concerns that Sex Offender Registry would infringe the rights of the sex offenders. We would like to remind the minister that the rights of women and girls in Malaysia for a safe environment is equally if not more important than the rights of the sex offenders. His concern is valid, in fact, what is most important to us is what type of Sex Offender Registry legislation actually reduce recidivism. But after so many years of “studying about the matter”,  Putrajaya still has no clue as to how to have a proper Sex Offender Registry, which take into account human rights and recidivism? That is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, we would like to remind the minister of Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim that it’s been six months since the Child Act Amendment 2016 was gazetted[iii]. This amendment includes Child Registry that contains records of convicts who committed crimes against children including sexual crime.  We read yesterday that her ministry is meeting with the police to finalize the child sex offenders registry “very soon”[iv]. After 6 months that the law was gazetted, we would really like to know how soon is her “very soon”?

With that, we call for quick actions from the three ministers – Nancy Shukri, Nur Jazlan and Rohani Karim, to get Sex Offenders Registry done once and for all. We urge Putrajaya not to dilly-dally on the matter anymore and give us a time frame as to when we can expect this to be done.

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PS: Here's the government's response to the statement: 1. http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ministry-welcome-call-to-expedite-sex-offenders-registry
2. http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/02/05/child-sex-offender-registry-up-and-running/