Enhancement of laws protecting children ineffective without stringent application of the new provisions
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
KUCHING: The Child Act (Amendment) 2016 that was gazetted on Monday would only be meaningful when the police, Welfare and Health departments work diligently to implement and enforce it.
National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC) president Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS opined that all these primary agencies must act in tandem as advocates in enforcing the Child Act.
“However, the major problem in protecting children in Malaysia is that many of the officers working in these agencies do not know the Child Act well and, even worse, often do not use it,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Dr Amar-Singh said this when asked to comment on the gazetting of the Child Act (Amendment) 2016 on Monday with four main amendments – child registry, community service order (CSO), a family-based care and heavier penalty.
The improvement to the Act was made by introducing new provisions, taking into account current issues related to children such as increase in negligence cases involving parents caring for their children.
Dr Amar-Singh said while it was clear that the amendments would bring about several positive changes, the key is implementing them.
“These are good laws but the implementation is in crisis”.
Unless the system changes, the new Act does not mean much for the children. The key issue is not its revision as much as its implementation.”
Dr Amar-Singh said his concerns were not without reason as past issues of implementation and enforcement of Child Act 2001 suggested a larger underlying issue at hand regarding the care and welfare of the children.
Voon Shiak Ni
Ann Teo
He remained skeptical if these concerns would be addressed despite Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Datuk Rohani Karim’s announcement that her ministry would conduct an awareness campaign to ensure that the public and all agencies are ready prior to the enforcement of the Act.
“While this is the case, we must also look into other factors as to why our old Child Act had such low enforcement rates. Why were the police, welfare and health sectors not abiding to the changes brought about in the Child Act of 2001?
“Is it really just a lack of education regarding the Child Act in all these agencies or could there be other reasons?”
Dr Amar-Singh cited one potential reason for this could be a lack of motivation and incentive in enforcing the laws, adding that the penalties for an officer breaching, not enforcing or failing a child might be too lax or there wasn’t enough emphasis put on child welfare.
“All these will lead to a dismissive attitude about child welfare. It should be up to all of us to raise awareness about the severity of the situation and the value of our children.”
PKR Women National vice president Voon Shiak Ni, in sharing Dr Amar-Singh’s sentiment on the need for effective enforcement but acknowledged that the steps taken by the ministry was a positive move and a way forward in child protection.
“I believe that a more severe punishment for perpetrators will always serve as a good deterrent for the commission of a crime. The implementation of a heavier sentence to a fine of RM50,000 and imprisonment of 20 years under the new amendment will serve as a good deterrence for any potential child abusers.”
She said it was also time to introduce the sex offender registry, which is a system long adopted in countries like Australia, New Zealand, UK and US.
“This is to enable the authorities to keep track of the activities of sex offenders especially after the shocking case of Richard Huckle, a British serial paedophile who had abused many of Malaysian toddlers and children under the guise of a teacher.”
Voon said it would also be important for the sex offender registry to be accessible for stakeholders like school authorities, child care institutions and other children non-governmental organisation.
“We also suggest to the ministry to look into efforts on preventive measures as the register will only register those paedophiles already charged and convicted. Prevention is always better than cure and we cannot afford to risk another Richard Huckle among our children.”
Meanwhile, Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) vice president Ann Teo commended the amendments.
However, she opined that the effectiveness remained to be seen because it would depend if sufficient resources would be allocated by the government for the amendments to be implemented.
“The Welfare Department should thus highlight how many trained child protection officers it has in Sarawak, how many of its staff needs further training or how many more such officers it needs in order to do the job.”
The Child Act (Amendment) 2016 Bill was approved by the Dewan Rakyat on April 6 and May 4 by the Senate.