Wanita Gerakan, while acknowledging the pain and grief suffered by the rape victims, does not agree with the proposed death penalty for child rapists for fear for its unintended adverse consequences for the victims.

Wanita Gerakan deputy chief Ng Siew Lai said today that although rapists certainly deserved a harsher punishment, using the death penalty might not be able to curb such crimes and instead could be counter-productive.

She said for instance there could be adverse repercussions for the victims as the perpetrators might decide to kill them to prevent from being identified or the victims testifying against them.

“Moreover, we must not forget that sexual crimes are not always committed by strangers but by persons whom the victims know and/or love – their fathers, uncles, persons in authority. If there is a heavy penalty, such as death, victims will not want to report. Who would want to send their own fathers, uncles, brothers to be killed? ,” she asked in a statement.

Referring to a research on sexual crime conducted by the Women’s Centre for Change Penang, Ng stressed that there still exists poor collection of forensic evidences, lack of witnesses, ‘cold cases’ due to late reporting and/or, insensitive police personnel, lack of evidences, and the long waiting period for the court trial.

Ng proposed a more comprehensive approach that covers education, prevention and deterrent aspects in combating sexual crimes.

“Just to name a few suggestions, first, more concrete and effective measures must be taken to fix the flawed and inefficient investigating and judicial process. Second, as a longer term action, teaching respectful relationships and sex education at schools, beginning from kindergardens will not only save lives but reduce, if not eliminate, sexual violence,” explained Ng.

Calls for the death penalty from both sides of the political divide came about following an increase of rapes and sexual abuses of young children.