Referring to the recent NST article "It's jail, rotan now for raping your wife" (14/09/07), I must say that I don't agree with the headline or premise that the recent Penal Code amendment has actually made it possible to punish perpetrators who rape their wives. Based on the report and what I've read thus far regarding this development, it appears that the amendment merely recognises that a man may use physical and violent force in compelling his wife to have sexual intercourse. It does not necessarily recognise and criminalise marital rape as such whereupon it is possible for a wife to not consent to having sex but is later forced by her husband into doing so. It does not appear to anticipate that physical intimidation could be uttered but not carried out or that threats of 'talak' (divorce) and accussations of 'nusyuz' (disobedient or traitorous wife) could be used to ensure compliance. Rape is forced sex regardless of whether it occurs within marriage or without. The use of physical violence is a separate issue and is punishable under existing law. Marital rape should be recognised clearly and definitively as such.
Laws which punish the use of physical violence and assault should already be a given in any circumstance whether one is married or not. Marital rape needs to be clearly defined, recognised and criminalised both under the Penal Code and Syariah Law.
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Friday, 14 September 2007
It's jail, rotan now for raping your wife
New Straits Times (14/09/07)
KUALA LUMPUR: Beating one’s wife into having sex can now land a man in serious trouble.
The punishment is a jail sentence of up to 20 years and whipping. This penalty is provided in an amendment on rape in the Penal Code which came into effect last Friday.
An example would be when the husband refuses to take "no" for an answer and then proceeds to slap or punch his wife into submission.
The amendment has classified rape and aggravated rape and each category carries different penalties.
Aggravated rape will include having sex with a girl aged below 12 and those found guilty could be sentenced up to 30 years and whipped.
The definition of rape has also been extended to cover the sexual exploitation of women by people in authority as in the case of a medicine man taking advantage of women seeking treatment.
Snatch theft has been reclassified as robbery and the perpetrator now faces up to 14 years in jail.
The maximum sentence for this offence was seven years in prison.
In July last year, parliament passed amendments to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) after a parliamentary select committee obtained feedback from the public and after visiting several Commonwealth countries to study their laws.
Changes to the CPC provide better rights for arrested persons. They include:
• Informing detainees of the grounds for their arrest as soon as possible and allowing them to inform their family and their lawyers.
• That the remand period be broken into two stages and categories:
In the investigation of an offence punishable with imprisonment of less than 14 years, a magistrate may issue a remand order of not more than four days on the first application and not more than three days on the second.
For an offence that is punishable with the death penalty or imprisonment of more than 14 years, a magistrate can grant up to seven days’ remand on the first application, followed by a maximum of seven more days on the second.
An accused person has automatic right to obtain favourable documents like first information report and the cautioned statement to prepare his defence.
There are now clear provisions on how a search should be conducted on suspects in order to safeguard their dignity.
The four types of body searches allowed are pat down search, strip search, intimate search and intrusive search. The controversial "nude squat" is banned.
Lawyer and lecturer Baljit Singh Sidhu said the amendment on remand prisoners was an excellent development.
"Before, there were repeated allegations of these prisoners being abused while under police custody."
He said punishment for offences such as rape and snatch theft had been enhanced but the provision for rehabilitation outside prison had been overlooked.
"It is left to be seen whether a longer custodial sentence will bring down such crime," he said.
KUALA LUMPUR: Beating one’s wife into having sex can now land a man in serious trouble.
The punishment is a jail sentence of up to 20 years and whipping. This penalty is provided in an amendment on rape in the Penal Code which came into effect last Friday.
An example would be when the husband refuses to take "no" for an answer and then proceeds to slap or punch his wife into submission.
The amendment has classified rape and aggravated rape and each category carries different penalties.
Aggravated rape will include having sex with a girl aged below 12 and those found guilty could be sentenced up to 30 years and whipped.
The definition of rape has also been extended to cover the sexual exploitation of women by people in authority as in the case of a medicine man taking advantage of women seeking treatment.
Snatch theft has been reclassified as robbery and the perpetrator now faces up to 14 years in jail.
The maximum sentence for this offence was seven years in prison.
In July last year, parliament passed amendments to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) after a parliamentary select committee obtained feedback from the public and after visiting several Commonwealth countries to study their laws.
Changes to the CPC provide better rights for arrested persons. They include:
• Informing detainees of the grounds for their arrest as soon as possible and allowing them to inform their family and their lawyers.
• That the remand period be broken into two stages and categories:
In the investigation of an offence punishable with imprisonment of less than 14 years, a magistrate may issue a remand order of not more than four days on the first application and not more than three days on the second.
For an offence that is punishable with the death penalty or imprisonment of more than 14 years, a magistrate can grant up to seven days’ remand on the first application, followed by a maximum of seven more days on the second.
An accused person has automatic right to obtain favourable documents like first information report and the cautioned statement to prepare his defence.
There are now clear provisions on how a search should be conducted on suspects in order to safeguard their dignity.
The four types of body searches allowed are pat down search, strip search, intimate search and intrusive search. The controversial "nude squat" is banned.
Lawyer and lecturer Baljit Singh Sidhu said the amendment on remand prisoners was an excellent development.
"Before, there were repeated allegations of these prisoners being abused while under police custody."
He said punishment for offences such as rape and snatch theft had been enhanced but the provision for rehabilitation outside prison had been overlooked.
"It is left to be seen whether a longer custodial sentence will bring down such crime," he said.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
The Malaysian HIV epidemic after 20 years
One of the hardest things to obtain when working on HIV in Malaysia has got to be the national and state statistics. The yearly Quest to obtain these sets of critical data is sometimes akin to questing for the Holy Grail with philosophical questions being asked by the Sacred Keepers and the need to show that you are worthy.Anyway, I've decided that in the future, wherever I get hold of these statistics, I'm just going to post them here for everyone's benefit. I've also done some analysis of the data which will be used in a series of special reports particularly on the issue of women and HIV in Malaysia. These I will share as much as I can.
The statistics for the country and indeed the data depended upon by policy makers to justify interventions are simply put, inadequate.I believe that we are currently mapping out the drug user HIV epidemic as opposed to the general population. The response to drug use, though essential and critical, should not be the only response to HIV.
The bulk of the resources allocated to combat this disease is tied up in activities related to HIV prevention among drug users. Other interventions such as those relating to heterosexual transmissions are mostly education campaigns which don't even really talk about sex to begin with..
Monday, 3 September 2007
Alarming rise in teenage smokers
The Star (03/09/07)
KOTA KINABALU: Teenagers in Sabah are taking up smoking at alarmingly high rate and some are having sex as early as the age of 10. A research by health officials among suburban teenagers in Telipok near here found that 30.3% admitted to being regular smokers, which is double the national average of 16% and above the global average of 20%.
“Nearly, a third of the teenaged respondents admitted to be smokers. It seems to be a common trend among Sabah teenagers. “Even more worrying is that the number of young girls taking up smoking has doubled from 4% to 8% in the last 10 years,” Sabah Health Department deputy director Dr Mohd Yusof Ibrahim said at the launching of the Telipok Teen Health Clinic here on Saturday.
The recent research was conducted by the Telipok Health Clinic on the periphery of the city to gauge the problem of smoking as well as the sexual habits of teenagers, which is to be used as a yardstick by the department for its various public health campaigns. The study also noted that 1.8% of the teenagers admitted to having premarital sex with a few disclosing that they had done so at the age of 10. “Premarital sex among teenagers, however, seems considerably lower,” he said, in explaining that it could be due to many respondents’ reluctance to answer direct questions on the matter.
Dr Yusof, however, said based on indirect questions like if they (teenagers) were aware of their friends being smokers or had sex showed a higher average with 66.4% saying they had at least one friend who was a smoker and 16.9% having knowledge of one their friends having sex. Dr Yusof did not mention the number of teenagers interviewed.
He said the Health Ministry found that 40% of the HIV patients in the country were below the age of 29 and in Sabah, 80% of the HIV infected teenagers had contracted it through unhealthy sexual practices.
KOTA KINABALU: Teenagers in Sabah are taking up smoking at alarmingly high rate and some are having sex as early as the age of 10. A research by health officials among suburban teenagers in Telipok near here found that 30.3% admitted to being regular smokers, which is double the national average of 16% and above the global average of 20%.
“Nearly, a third of the teenaged respondents admitted to be smokers. It seems to be a common trend among Sabah teenagers. “Even more worrying is that the number of young girls taking up smoking has doubled from 4% to 8% in the last 10 years,” Sabah Health Department deputy director Dr Mohd Yusof Ibrahim said at the launching of the Telipok Teen Health Clinic here on Saturday.
The recent research was conducted by the Telipok Health Clinic on the periphery of the city to gauge the problem of smoking as well as the sexual habits of teenagers, which is to be used as a yardstick by the department for its various public health campaigns. The study also noted that 1.8% of the teenagers admitted to having premarital sex with a few disclosing that they had done so at the age of 10. “Premarital sex among teenagers, however, seems considerably lower,” he said, in explaining that it could be due to many respondents’ reluctance to answer direct questions on the matter.
Dr Yusof, however, said based on indirect questions like if they (teenagers) were aware of their friends being smokers or had sex showed a higher average with 66.4% saying they had at least one friend who was a smoker and 16.9% having knowledge of one their friends having sex. Dr Yusof did not mention the number of teenagers interviewed.
He said the Health Ministry found that 40% of the HIV patients in the country were below the age of 29 and in Sabah, 80% of the HIV infected teenagers had contracted it through unhealthy sexual practices.
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