Have you ever been in a situation when someone is staring at you and make you feel weirdly uncomfortable to an extent you would want to say up front “Stop looking at me or I’ll smack you with my bag!”?
Have you ever been ‘praised’ in the public by someone with obscene remarks such as “You have such a ‘voluptuous asset’” and you know that he meant your bosom?
Reading the news about a woman being harassed by a cop in uniform while performing his duty in Jalan Duta is too hard for me to digest.
As a woman, a mum, and a proud Malaysian, I felt disgusting and ridiculous. It’s an insult to women and to our beloved nation.
To add to my surprise, there’s no specific act of law that governed harassment in Malaysia except the Employment Act 1955 which focuses on sexual harassment at the workplace only.
So, what’s next? What will happen to the cop should the allegation is true? What punishment will they receive?
Is demotion or being removed from the system enough as a penalty?
I have no answer for it. As reported by Bernama, Datuk Seri Rina Mohd Harun, The Women, Family and Community Development Minister stated that her ministry is committed to formulating a law on sexual harassment to be tabled in Parliament. Only now? Sigh!
What is defined as ‘harassment’?
Harassment means any verbal, written or physical conduct that is known or ought reasonably to have been known to be unwelcome, inappropriate, or otherwise offensive to a person.
Such conduct causes the person being harassed to feel humiliated, offended or threatened and at some point violates his/her dignity.
There are few categories that could be considered as harassment including:
- Discriminatory harassment based on race, religion, age, and someone’s disability
- Personal harassment
- Physical harassment
- Power/authority harassment
- Verbal harassment
- Sexual harassment
- Cyberbullying
There is no specific Malaysian law that criminalises stalking and harassment for the public.
However, there are provisions of law that prohibit certain actions that border on stalking and harassment.
According to Mr. Azrul Hafizi, a legal counsel from an Oil & Gas company, harassment, particularly sexual harassment often occur at the workplace.
Therefore there is a code that protects any employee from being sexually harassed.
Most public incidents went unnoticed as they were not or under-reported.
Public harassment is usually a once-off incident while the scenarios at the workplace could be a series of repeated offences that turn into severe harassment.
So, for the case of the cop allegedly harassing the lady driver, how can justice be fulfilled?
Azrul said that the policeman is under his employer’s investigation and the worst that could happen might be he will get demoted or sacked.
Know your rights when being stopped by a policeman
Perhaps, many of us are not aware of our rights when being asked to stop at a roadblock.
Being a law-abiding citizen, you just have to stay calm, know where your documents are, and slow down or stop when required.
According to the Malaysian Bar, when you are dealing with the officers at the roadblock, you should remember your rights as following:
1. When being asked to stop and provide identification
If the police officer who pulled you over is dressed in anything other than a complete uniform, you have the right to ask for his/her identification tag.
If the authority card is red, means the officer has been suspended from work and has no authority to do anything to you. Police authority cards are colour-coded based on their ranks.
2. Take note of the details
For any case, do note the police name and ID number that is on his/her uniform.
On top of that, do note the time, date and location of the event for your own record purposes.
3. When being questioned by police
If you are uncomfortable with the questions asked, you may ask the details from the officer.
If things get overboard, you may ask politely if you are under arrest or not.
If you are not under arrest, you may walk away/refuse to follow him back to the Police Station or anywhere else, if asked.
4. Report misconduct of a police officer
If there’s a requirement and should you feel your rights have been violated, you may want to lodge your report to the nearest police station. It is best if you could recall the wordings using verbatim.
You should also mention your feelings at that time should you feel scared or threatened.
The words thrown at you could carry weight to some extent made you feel uncomfortable, threatened or fear.
5. “See you in court”
The police force will investigate the officer in the report and take necessary action.
However, you could also file for a civil suit should you have suffered mental anguish or nervous breakdown and need to seek professional treatment from the traumatic events.
Specifically on the Jalan Duta incident, it saddened me to read netizens’ remarks commenting and mocking the victim.
For whatever, the cop was on duty and should he has no respect for others, he could at least be professional as a man in uniform with authority.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we have the rights to generalise that all police officers are perverts and have no integrity.
There are many policemen and women out there working 24-7 as the frontliners, leaving behind their families for sake of Malaysian’s safety.
We should understand their circumstances and mutual respect among human is definitely the way forward.