An opposition leader has supported the call to review the laws dealing with rape in light of the recent acquittal of a man who admitted to having used his finger in a sexual act with a 15-year-old.
In her statement today, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said that the acquittal was a gross injustice, and added that stricter laws are needed in cases of sexual assault.
She was responding to the acquittal of Sarawakian Bunya Jalong, who was freed of his rape conviction by the Court of Appeal on grounds that there was no penile penetration and that the intercourse with the 15-year-old girl was voluntary.
Following the case, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri urged the government to apply for a review of the law as provided for under Section 137 of the Federal Court Rules; a move which Teo says DAP welcomes.
“Clearly, we need to expand the definition of rape under Section 375 of the Penal Code so that it does not only confine to unlawful sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Rape should not be limited to penile penetration, and it’s time to make the crime of rape gender neutral,” Teo said.
She also added that consent is irrelevant in the case of a teenager below the age of 16, as it was alleged that she consented to finger penetration.
“For example, French law defines rape as any act of sexual penetration of any nature committed on another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise. According to French law, rape does not concern only penile penetration of the vagina or an offence involving only a man and a woman,” she said.
Apart from the French law, Teo used the example of the 1997 Anti-Rape Law in the Philippines which includes insertion of the penis into another person’s mouth or anal orifice, or the insertion of any instrument or object into the genital or anal orifice of another person without consent as rape.
“The decision of Court of Appeal will be a dangerous precedent that will make the prosecutor’s job to convict a rapist more difficult in the future,” Teo said.
Teo added that the DAP is willing to work together with BN to set up a registry of sex offenders also. The idea was mooted by the DAP following the recent case when a Malaysian scholar was convicted of possessing videos and images of children in pornography. The proposal was supported by Nancy who said that a deeper study on how a registry was to be set up is necessary.
-The Rocket
