Shocking Malaysia into Awareness of Child Sex Abuse

KUALA LUMPUR - Sexual child abuse, unfortunately, has been making headlines in Malaysia recently. In the UK, Richard Huckle, now known as Britain's worst paedophile was convicted and given life in prison for the abuse of at least 23 children in Malaysia and Cambodia. This shed light on an issue that many in the strictly religious and rather sheltered nation deny is a problem. 

More recently, Malaysian activist Syed Azmi exposed a prolific chat group created to discuss sex with children and to share child pornography. The 751 members of the group would take images of children off the web, often from social-media sites, and discuss what they would like to do with the children. 

Also recently, journalists at Star Media's R.AGE exposed the 'grooming' activities of predators.  A lack of awareness, and poor-to-no sex education in Malaysia, particularly among rural and more strictly religious communities, has been pointed out as a factor that makes Malaysian children particularly vulnerable to predators like Huckle.

A national campaign launching today, spearheaded by Alvin Teoh, ECD at NagaDDB, hopes to change that.

It's personal 

"My 9-year-old daughter was a victim of a paedophile teacher two years ago, but thankfully she escaped before any serious damage was done because she planned her escape as soon as he made his moves on her," Teoh shared. "Needless to say, that was the time I felt most broken. But the lesson for us was that my daughter was empowered with awareness, thanks to the efforts of my wife. That saved her."

Teoh pointed out that before the Huckle case made headlines, there was next to no reportage on the issue in Malaysia. "Even now many here see it as a White-man disease, ignoring the fact that there are countless locals who are predators. These predators draw power from ignorance, and so many have gotten away."

The first phase of Nursery Crimes, targets parents of very young children and is about getting this taboo and misunderstood topic into the spotlight, said Teoh. "We want people to talk about it and we want to drive the microsite to seek information and to seek advice and help via PS the Children, an NGO that is at the forefront of the battle against this abuse."

This stage of the campaign rides on the fact that children can't tell the difference between love and sexual abuse. Statistically, many of the crimes are committed by people they trust: neighbours, teachers, caretakers, even parents and grandparents. "This is tragic as well as shameful and is quietly swept under the carpet," commented Teoh.

The campaign features three films, one each in English, Malay and Chinese, each of which leads to a microsite that provides information on how to spot the signs of abuse, how to react to a case of child abuse and where to seek help. "Then, each visitor to the site is invited to be an advocate of this mission just by passing on the knowledge by sharing information from the microsite."

Two years in the making 

It took Teoh two years to get this campaign off the ground, because when the idea was first proposed, it made the social workers that he consulted uncomfortable.  "They were afraid that children would not understand and would start to sing these nursery rhymes we had rewritten," he said. "So we put it on hold, out of respect. But after a year of waiting, these stories started to come out and we went ahead. But we did remember their advice and the videos will be online, and if it's on air, it will be in a timebelt where children are unlikely to be watching."

The videos are extremely difficult to watch. The appropriation of beloved nursery rhymes is shocking, and there is a genuine creeping sense of dread for the child in the video. "When we were casting, we had quite a few parents pull their children out when they read the script," Teoh said. "However in the end, we found parents who understood and were fully on board with the project."

Need to shock

Teoh believes that there is a need to shock, and that greater awareness and education on the issue outweighed the negatives. "It's controversial and straightforward," he said. "We knew we couldn't hold back on shocking people, and we didn't want to be too clever about it. People are meant to be angry, to be in denial. Any response is a good response."

    In Chinese with Malay subtitles

Teoh and his team donated their work to the project pro-bono, along with the production and audio houses involved. "When they heard what we wanted to do, they were keen to work on it free of charge," he said. But Teoh was firm that the project needed the full support of a legitimate NGO. "We could have carried the project, but we don't have all the necessary knowledge," he said. "We need experts, people working in the field to advise us. We 're not social activists, we're ad-agency people.

Sometimes intentions might be good, but you can cause a lot of damage because of ignorance. Someone's misery and pain is not a subject matter for award wins." PS the Children, said Teoh, was happy to work with NagaDDB on the project and is at the forefront of working with abused kids in Malaysia. "They have given us their full support."

More to do 

The campaign will air in TGV Cinemas, which has donated screen time to the campaign. Audio versions will be broadcast on Astro Radio, which has likewise given free air time to the project. "We're also in discussions with Astro to see how we can bring this topic to life via their talk shows," said Teoh.

"The media, publishers and key opinion leaders are also lending their support to amplify the project." This is only phase one, and there is much more to do, concluded Teoh. "There's cyber-stalking, the empowerment of survivors of child sex abuse and even child brides. Malaysians need to have proper conversations around these topics."

So do a lot of countries. God bless this project and use it to save many children from this sickening abuse.

Stopping Child Sexual Abuse

Recognizing the steps of grooming and

knowing safe and unsafe touch

Safe and unsafe touches: Yong says that personal safety programmes teach children how to fend for themselves. Photos: The Star/Azman Ghani

BY MAY CHIAM

When the crimes of child sex abuser Richard Huckle came to light, Malaysians were shocked and horrified. Huckle’s crimes provoked national outrage, and left many wondering how he could have gone undetected for so long. How had he managed to continue his abuse without anyone speaking up?

“A lot of offenders keep the secret by grooming children,” Protect and Save the Children (PS The Children) founder Madeleine Yong says. “Grooming builds a relationship of trust with the community, the adults, and the child.”

The NGO is one of the few in the country focused solely on combating child sexual abuse. When Huckle was arrested in December 2014, PS The Children was called upon by British police to go into the affected communities to provide safeguarding activities.

“These offenders go to places where they can access children. They become volunteers and church members, for example,” Yong says.

Child sexual abuse is a complex and taboo subject, one we’re reluctant to discuss for fear of causing offence or embarrassment. But our silence fosters a culture of ignorance that makes it difficult to disclose and uncover sexual abuse.

“We need nationwide training of all adults about the dynamics of child sexual abuse. We had a case of a coach who was sexually abusing his runners. They were all groomed.

“Grooming puts the responsibility on the child. The child thinks, ‘It’s my fault.’

“The grooming process keeps sexual abuse a secret. And the hallmark of sexual abuse is secrecy,” adds Yong.


In P.S The Children’s personal safety programme, these illustrations are used to demonstrate safe or unsafe situations

How grooming works

Like Huckle, most sexual offenders groom their victims. In S.A.F.E. Children, a toolkit for the prevention of child sexual abuse, PS The Children identifies a five-stage grooming process.

In the first stage, sexual predators “create opportunities” by going to places where children are. By being helpful and friendly, the sex offender gains the trust of the child and the adults around. His goal is to make everyone feel safe.

In the second stage, he “targets the child”. The targeted child is usually more vulnerable than his or her peers, with lower self-esteem and is less likely to reveal the abuse. The victim has an emotional void that the sex offender can fill. Once he gains the victim’s full trust and dependence, he starts “twisting” the relationship.

In the third and fourth stages, the predator introduces physical touch and sexual touch.

“After he befriends the child, he normalises physical touch. “He’ll say, ‘Well done!’, and pat the child on the back. Then he goes from physical touch to sexual touch (abuse).”

In the final stage, the child is manipulated – oftentimes coerced and intimidated – into “keeping the secret”. Once shrouded in shame and secrecy, it becomes even harder for the child to speak out.

“Most children have amazing hearts. They want the attacks to stop, but they don’t want any harm to happen to the sex offender. The relationship makes it very difficult for a child to disclose (the sexual abuse). And it takes a lot for a child to disclose,” says Yong.

The onus is on parents and adult caregivers to step up. They must be aware of changes in behaviour and how to respond when a child reveals abuse.

“We advocate for adults to be alert,” Yong continues.

“We had a preschool girl who one day didn’t have dinner. And grandma said, ‘Are you sick?’ And the girl said, ‘I don’t want to go back to school tomorrow; there’s karate classes.’ And the grandma asks, ‘Did anything happen?’ Then the child disclosed.”

Yong urges parents not to react inappropriately – dismissing claims, passing judgment – but to respond calmly. Instead of closing communication channels, parents should be open to any disclosures of abuse.

“Parents should get training on the dynamics of sexual abuse and how to run a personal safety training workshop.

“Be alert, knows the signs, and know how to report. If adults are safeguarding – if there’s a community that looks out for sex offenders – sex offenders aren’t going to be so bold,” she says.

Signing children up for personal safety training programmes is also critical. While there is a compulsory personal safety component in the pre-school curriculum, Yong says that teachers rarely cover how to prevent child sexual abuse.

“It’s stated that you have to cover personal safety, so a lot of schools just teach children how to cross the road safely. They’re not teaching personal safety in terms of abuse. We teach personal safety in terms of sexual abuse but in a child-friendly way,” Yong says.

“One thing that we teach is ‘Say no, run, and tell!’”. We make it fun. We dance and sing. We ask the children if they like their body parts, like their eyes and nose. Then we teach them the proper names for their private parts to remove the shame,” says PS The Children training and education executive Ting Pei Lim. The NGO’s personal safety training programme is called Keeping Me Safe, and is modified for pre-school, primary, and secondary children. There are also workshops for adults.

In the pre-school programme, children are taught three basic “Touching Rules”. The first that no one should touch their private body parts except to keep them healthy. The second that if they’re touched and they don’t like it, they should say no, run away, and tell someone. The third is that they should tell someone they trust and to keep telling until someone helps them.

The children are also taught about safe and unsafe touches, which are associated with emotion. A safe touch makes a child experience positive feelings, while an unsafe touch does not.

“You get the child to discern, so they can decide what is a safe or unsafe touch,” Yong explains. “We do this as preventive, so the children have the skills to know what to do.”

Yong and her team at PS The Children are elated that Huckle has been brought to justice, but they know too well the stealthy offenders who still lurk in our backyard.

“We know many other local children who’ve been sexually abused where the offenders got no convictions; at least Huckle got convicted.

“But it’s the same thing here in Malaysia. You get the same local abusers here,” says Yong.

“Until the criminal justice system tightens up and the conviction rate is a lot higher, it’s still going to remain the same,” she continues. “You can have a lot of awareness, but until the system supports the child, you’re constantly going to have this problem.”