Another BN clown joins the Jabu circus

By Zhang ML

Hasan Sui (photo right) was a member of the Task Force set up by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, which concluded categorically that the allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of Penan women in Baram are true.

In fact, he was roped in by the state government to the Task Force as a representative of the Penan. As such he was supposed to represent the challenges and interests of his “own people”, the Penan, in the task force. He was meant to participate in the work of the Task Force, originally set up to investigate the allegations and to make recommendations for protection of the girls and women.

However his statements made in the Borneo Post on November 7 make for nauseating reading. It would appear he has tried to undermine the credibility and importance of the findings of the ministerial Task Force.

He said “recent allegations of sexual abuse of Penan women and girls in Baram were obvious examples of how outsiders had once again meddled in the affairs of the ethnic group”.

He then said “the alleged sexual abuse in Baram could not be solved until the victims themselves have lodged their police reports without going through a third party.”

Hasan said: “I was one of the committee members responsible for investigating the cases. Police reports were made by a third party at Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, not by the victims at Marudi and Baram police stations although the incidents happened in Baram.

“This shows that many outsiders have been meddling in Penan affairs, but the cases won’t be solved without the victims lodging their own police reports,” he said, adding that the issue had become a media sensation worldwide.

Task Force documented victims’ own reports

His statement reported by the media is obviously false. His claim that the girls or women never lodged the report themselves and that the report was by a “third party”, is nonsense. Anyone can see the girls made the report themselves in the Task Force document, which has now been made public and is easily available over the internet.

His statements clearly smack of reluctance; he was a member of the fact-finding mission who seems like a reluctant member of the Task Force and refuses to face the facts!

Recently, the Minister of Women, Family and Community Development, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil herself announced that the Task Force will continue to monitor and oversee the implementation of measures that have been recommended pertaining to the development of the Penan.

I just wonder what Hasan Sui, this reluctant and self-contradicting member of the Task Force, has to contribute from now on. It would no longer be fitting for him to be a member; in fact, it would be offensively audacious for him to want to continue to be a member of the said Task Force, to claim to represent the interests of the Penan. It would be ridiculous indeed for him to make proposals and suggestions in respect of the Penan.

Nowhere does it appear in the Borneo Post that this “Penan representative” has the slightest appreciation of the challenges and struggles of the two Penan women, “Bibi” and “Cindy”, who lodged their rape reports in KL. They had an especially harrowing time because they are from the interior, from a remote part of Sarawak.

Lack of respect for the Penan

For those of us who have been following the story from the first time the allegations first surfaced in the Star last October, this latest statement by Hasan Sui is foul. It is an especially ugly statement coming from a person who professes to represent Penan interests. There is no acknowledgement that the abuse is happening. Instead, he shows the Penan no respect and implies that “his own people” are easily influenced by outsiders, and have no mind of their own!

He makes this statement simply because the two rape survivors had been able to travel to the capital, and this could only have happened because of “interference” of a third party! He has no appreciation of the fact that one of the girls was a minor at the time she was raped, and had delivered a baby as a result of the rape.

Worse still, he tried clumsily to undermine the reports of the two Penan women as being under the influence of some sinister “outsider”, while ignoring the trauma of the girls themselves.

Hasan said, “It was rather strange that the victim did not report the incident to the nearest police station in Marudi. Until now, I still can’t fully understand why that was so. The girl could have reported the rape in Marudi and not in far-away Kuala Lumpur.”

Does it matter where the victim lodged her report? Hasan Sui’s comment again cements the usual attitude of members of the public in general, that it is the rape survivor’s behaviour that gets scrutinized and questioned. He is in fact questioning the credibility of the rape report! This reminds me of how a defence lawyer in a rape charge would question the credibility of the complainant, if she (or he) had lodged her report some time after the rape.

One of the myths of rape is that if the victims are truthful, they would report the crime immediately. Therefore, late reporting of a sexual crime means that this is often interpreted as meaning it is not a genuine report.

Research shows that there are number of reasons why a woman (or man) might not report the crime, or might delay reporting it. These include:

• Fear of embarrassment or humiliation, and stigma attached to being a victim of a sexual crime, where the worth of the individual becomes devalued even when she is innocent;

• Fear that they will be blamed for the crime, by families, friends, the police, the medical officers and/or anyone else to whom they make the report, or have to suffer the consequences of making a report;

• The situation where victims blame themselves (previous research shows how common this is, even where they clearly have no reason whatsoever to do so);

• Uncertainty and fear regarding what will happen if they make a report;

• Fear of publicity and the trial process;

• Fear of retaliation by the rapist or friends/family of the rapist;

• Pressure from the family not to report, to ‘safeguard’ the family’s name;

• Pressure where the victim has an existing close relationship with the accused (e.g. relative, boyfriend or date); and

• Lack of knowledge or understanding that a crime has been committed.

Furthermore, even the Inspector-General of Police has recognised that the rural poor in Baram have little trust in the local police in Marudi. The local police are seen to be siding with logging companies and their hired thugs, against the local communities.

This sole “Penan representative” in the Ministry’s Task Force has failed to show that he even comes close to understanding the challenges that women face in lodging reports of sexual crime, let alone these indigenous women from remote rural communities.

We can only hope Hasan Sui knows what to do now.