Cat Out Of The Bag #4 - I am Sorry About "You Too" - The Lack of Male Sexual Victimisation Redress In the SHB

It has been announced by the Dewan Rakyat that the Sexual Harassment Bill is expected to be tabled for the first reading in the Parliament by the end of this year. The first seating of Parliament has come and gone but no signs of this life-changing-thought-provoking-cultural-defining bill in sight.

The SHB is a long awaited piece of legislation which is meant to tie up the gaps of sexual harassment happening at the workplace and public areas as well as in private settings. The Bill was first thought to make its presence in March 2020 but due to the change of government of Malaysia and the lockdown, the bill has been pushed to the back burner once again.

In Malaysia, the limited provision and protection against sexual harassment can be found under part XVA Employment Act 1955 (EA) where it states ―sexual harassment means any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, whether verbal, non-verbal, visual, gestural or physical, directed at a person which is offensive or humiliating or is a threat to his well-being, arising out of and in the course of his employment.

The EA does not distinguish between male and female or employer and employee. As such, sexual harassment can be committed by a female against a male, or an employee against an employer. (Hurray for that!) But having the SHB would tidy up other anomalies surrounding the issue of gender based violence and harassment.

In the UK, they have the Prevention from Harassment Act 1997 which is a criminal offence of harassment. The prosecution needs to prove beyond all reasonable doubt, three elements of criminal harassment which have to proven are:

• the defendant has pursued a course of conduct;
• the course of conduct amounted to harassment of another person; and
• the defendant knew or ought to have known that the course of conduct amounted to harassment.

"Based on statistics from the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), between 2013 and 2017, out of a total of 1,218 reported sexual harassment cases, 79 percent involved victims who were women while 21 percent involved male victims." - The Asean Post

Personally I am excited about this bill being tabled; as any vagina owners should be; but also as a person who has intermittently suffered harassment throughout her life whether as a kid, teen or an adult woman. As such, it would be a shame if any women who has remotely ever suffered any gender based violence or harassment rejects this Bill outright.

But of late I get to wondering if the Bill is getting the support from men? Or are we missing the right vocalisation to get the support that we need from the other sex? Then I began researching for data on how men could also be a victim of sexual harassment or even being caught in the abuse of process of sexual harassment by the so-called victim. My research did not go further than the tip of my nose yonder because of the limited and truncated facts of male sexual victimisation study.

The reasons which I gathered why men are not forthcoming of about the abuse because the idea of men suffering abuse at the hands of woman is unimaginable. Imagine a man going to file a police report against a perpetrator woman who is harassing or stalking him would have fallen unto deaf ears and that man would be mocked for being "weak" for even attempting to make a report. It is a stigma and they may consider it to be “unmanly” to report such incident.

But in today's society although we have tried normalising gender based expectations and men should (hopefully) are able to voice their troubles of the same issue- we are yet to reach an acceptable redress of male sexual victimisation.

I am of the opinion for SHB to be a successful piece of legislation, it has to be firstly worded in neutral gender text. This would not be an issue if it is a regular legislations but since it a gender violence protection act, it has to be sensitive to express the use for all genders.

Secondly, it has to also provide for an avenue of remedial action in case of an abuse of process. There will be some unscrupulous person who would use the SHB to destroy reputation and livelihood by raising allegations of harassment against another. Sadly, I have heard enough stories of how sexual harassment allegations are used against men by women who are scorned. As such, having SHB would mean we may be able to eradicate the possibility of abuse of process.

In a workplace setting, I have advised clients when they have found that the employees have abused the grievance channel to raise unfounded sexual harassment allegations against another colleague by taking disciplinary action against the so-called complainant. Although cases may varied, the general outcome of a fake allegation should tantamount to gross misconduct.

Thirdly, there should be a provision that allows the parties to keep their identities a secret until the perpetrator is found guilty by the Court. In the early 2000, when I was called for National Service PLKN, I was unfortunate to be placed in the camp at Setiu Terengganu. Not that I hated National Service but it was where one of the young National Service trainee claimed that the trainer had raped her. The trainer who was a soldier elected to facilitate the first ever National Service at my camp, was court martialled. I was in the middle of the fiasco which shook the kids in the camp and the integrity of the trainers. Many of my female comrades applied to leave early because of this incident.

From our insider information, it was another scorned love story which lead to a bad remix of the girl who cried wolf. Hence, the most of us had in mind that there is a possibility that the trainer was innocent. The case ended way after we finished our training but I continue to follow the case in the media. It went quiet after awhile with no conclusion that there was rape. As the case maybe, it was an unfortunate circumstances for the said victim, and I wonder what would be his life after the case ended.

As such, to protect the possibility that the defendant may be innocent until proven otherwise, his or her identity should be protected against public derision and trial by media.

All in all, I hope SHB would relieve the notion that harassment is a patriarchal crime and would offer protection for all genders without exception.

[This is the author's personal opinion on the upcoming SHB and her information (or the lack thereof) about male sexual victimisation. Her hope is that men would read this article and understand that why it is important for them to join the bandwagon in ensuring a radical legislation like SHB would offer a gender neutral protection as well as check and balance against abuse of process]