KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — Authorities should address more serious issues such as child trafficking and marriages before spending time studying a proposal to outlaw corporal punishment, a PKR lawmaker said today.
Expressing her support for caning as a form of disciplinary action, PKR’s Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin also said acceptable physical punishment was a private matter between parent and child, which did not need the state’s intervention.
“On the other hand, issues that affect children on a more serious level are child trafficking, child labour and child marriage,” she said in a statement today.
“It is silly that children are made to work or get married even before they can cast their first vote.”
On Saturday, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said caning could be an offence under a new law to replace the Child Act 2001.
She later clarified that the provision proposed by the ministry under the new Child Act is not meant to outlaw all forms of caning of children, only those meted out on child offenders in court.
Currently, Section 91(1)(g) of the Child Act 2001 allows a male child to be sentenced to caning not more than 10 strokes if found guilty of criminal offences.
