PETALING JAYA, April 21 ― DAP's Yeo Bee Yin kicked off a campaign today to raise awareness about rape and to reverse the culture of victim blaming, in line with this month’s sexual assault awareness campaign.
The Damansara Utama assemblyman said her service centre has teamed up with the All Women's Action Society (AWAM) to run the digital campaign to change the way people think about rape.
“On average, there are 3,000 rape cases reported every year in Malaysia and only two out of every 10 cases are reported.
“In other words, every 35 minute, there is one girl or woman being raped somewhere in Malaysia,” she told reporters at the service centre here.
She said the Selangor government funded the RM20,000 2-minute long video, “Rogol adalah rogol. Tiada alasan” (Rape is rape. No excuse) that can be used for educational purposes.
Yeo also expressed concern over the low prosecution rate in rape cases.
Citing the Home Ministry’s official statistics, she said 28,471 rape cases were reported from 2005 to July 2014. Out of which, 16 per cent, or 4,514 cases were brought to court and only 2.7 per cent, or 765 suspects were found guilty.
She also pointed out that the video's target audience are men.
“We have always thought rape is about women when it is about men, the perpetrators.
“This video is to tell men that no matter what the circumstances is, rape is still rape and there is no excuse for it, women need to be respected,” she said.
Awam's Betty Yeoh who was also present said there is a lack of awareness of the fact that rape victims are supposed to report the crime within 72 hours and are not supposed to wash themselves until then- to allow evidence to be collected.
“If you are afraid to go to police station, you can go to one stop crisis centers at all government hospitals where they will get medical attention, support by social workers and more importantly, the police will be called in to assist the victims in making the police report,” she added.
She said she hopes that this campaign will help educate Malaysians against blaming rape victims and providing them support.
