He is a Deputy Minister, a member of the Cabinet chosen by Prime Minister Najib, and he has embarrassed all Malaysians. His 'comment' as to why there are so many statutory rape reports amongst Malaysian Malays(1,147), compared to the other ethnic groups to Malaysia [Chinese(62), Indians(32)] was that he '....believes that Malays are "more sensitive" to minors being raped as opposed to non-Malays...'. Is this a racist statement?
Maybe, it is not a question of which ethnic group is more sensitive or less sensitive, but it just happens to happen more amongst Malays than other ethnic groups?
Maybe, it may be because there is a loss of confidence in the criminal justice system - hence why make police reports?
Really, Prime Minister Najib must chose better Malaysians as members of his cabinet. If Wan Junaidi does not retract and apologize, then maybe he should be removed from Cabinet? We shall see whether Najib says anything, which I hope he does not, for silence may be presumed to be his consent of the position taken by Wan Junaidi?
In fact, why do you even break up the statistics according to ethnicity - In Malaysia, rightly statistics should be given without breaking down in terms of ethnicity or religion. Are we trying to show that there are more statutory rapist amongst Malays? Rape is rape...crime is crime - there really should not be any correlation based on ethnicity or religion.
Aliran Statement
Child rape is rape; no ethnic biases, please
If the community is sensitive towards child rape, how does one explain the astronomical rise in child rape? Shouldn’t sensitivity be a deterrent factor in preventing child rape?
In Parliament yesterday, Wan Junaidi revealed that last year, 80 per cent or 1,147 of the 1,424 of statutory rape cases reported involved Malays.
In a social environment where racism often rears its ugly head, such an insensitive and ridiculous remark, especially coming from a member of the Cabinet, obviously doesn’t enlighten the general public in any way. If anything, it only reinforces the very thing that concerned Malaysians have been attempting to arrest and eventually quash: institutional and personal racism. If we have a cabinet minister who only sees and interprets issues from an ethnic perspective, then there is no hope of getting rid of this revolting practice.
Instead of resorting to such an unintelligent approach to this worrying phenomenon, the government would do Malaysians a great favour by consciously examining the underlying causes of child rape while at the same time instituting short-term measures to combat this social scourge.
For if ordinary Malaysians were to pander to this type of racist thinking, many of them might also be inclined to erroneously believe that it is the DNA of the Malay community that shapes them to be incorrigibly lascivious.
Dr Mustafa K Anuar
Honorary Secretary
Aliran
19 March 2014
4:00PM Mar 18, 2014
'Non-Malays less likely to report statutory rape'
In an explanation that can be described as baffling, Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar believes that Malays are "more sensitive" to minors being raped as opposed to non-Malays.
According to him, this is the reason why there is a high number of statutory rape cases reported involving Malays.
Speaking in Parliament, the deputy minister suggested that perhaps non-Malays are “more accepting" of statutory rape and thus do not lodge reports.
"They (Muslims) can't accept illegitimate children," Wan Junaidi said during Question Time today, in reply to Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu).
Statistics reveal that Malays make up 80 percent of the total statutory rape cases reported.
"Malays have more reports compared to other races because they are Muslims who can't accept a child out of wedlock, pre-marital sex, and because these acts are wrong by Islamic law (zina)," the former Parliament deputy speaker said.
He said that though the number of reports has reduced, the numbers are still "worrying" since children between 13 to 16 years old make up almost 90 percent of the total reports.Wan Junaidi said that the family institution is more crucial in overcoming this issue.
"The role of parents is extremely huge in educating their children and monitoring their movement," he said.
Malaysian laws stipulates that sexual intercourse with those aged 15 and below is considered statutory rape. - Malaysiakini, 18/3/2014, 'Non-Malays less likely to report statutory rape'
Absurd to say non-Malays 'less sensitive' to rape
MP SPEAKS Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar statement that non-Malays are less sensitive and “under report” statutory rape cases is totally uncalled for.
In the first place, how would Wan Junaidi be able to ascertain precisely that “non-Malays” are less sensitive or more willing to accept child rape, considering that almost all races and all faiths in the Malaysia puts high emphasis on family and spiritual values?
Rape is a serious crime, no matter what. Rape is rape! Get it, Wan Junaidi?
Did Wan Junaidi make any cross-reference with the Education Ministry?
He also seemed to be ‘confused’ with the definition of statutory rape (which is the crime for having sex with a minor, with or without consent) and pre-marital sex when he said, "...this was because the majority of Muslim parents are unable to accept the idea of sex before marriage, compared with non-Malay parents who are presumably less sensitive over the issue".
Finally, Wan Junaidi had essentially given out a very dangerous signal to perverted sexual criminals who would likely now be prying against the hundred thousands of “non-Malay” students through the social media, such as Facebook.
Without any sense of responsibility at all, the deputy home minister implied that “it is not unusual for the parents of these non-Malays” not to be bothered at all with statutory rape or to report such cases.
Surely, this will encourage the perverted sexual criminals to commit sexual violence against any minor, especially non-Malays, since he seemed to have inferred this.
Stupidity beyond comprehension
Truly, this connotes another stupidity beyond comprehension shown by a BN federal cabinet deputy minister and he should be responsible if sexual crimes against the non-Malay minors suddenly go on the rise.
This is the same deputy home minister from the Sarawak BN who issued warnings not to discuss the 18 and 20 points Malaysia Agreement of 1963 anymore when his own Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem is now unequivocally talking about it and reaffirming that Sarawak is an equal partner in the Federation of Malaysia.
I can only but sadly deduct and opine that from this infamous deputy home minister’s warning on not talking about the Malaysia Agreement (to which we can infer also applies to his own Sarawak chief minister), Wan Junaidi, is only serving his political masters in Umno and not the people at all.
So, likewise, his comments on non-Malays being able to accept child rape or statutory rape is another unacceptable position taken by this ever controversial BN government.
DARELL LEIKING is the Member of Parliament for Penampang, Sabah.
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