Rape is a serious offence in any country.

As calls gather momentum for the government to investigate the cabinet minister allegedly responsible for raping his Indonesian maid, elsewhere justice is served.
 
Former Israeli president Motsave Katsav, 65, has been found guilty of two counts of raping an employee in 1998 when he was Israel's tourism minister.

The disgraced politician, refusing a plea bargain, is expected to serve a jail sentence between four to 16 years. The judge rejected Katsav’s defence of political witch-hunt and said his version of events was “strewn with lies”.
 
The judge also convicted him of lesser counts of indecent acts: sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he was president from 2000 to 2007, and obstruction of justice.
 
It is a victory for the legal system and democracy in Israel.

The conviction confirms that no one is above the law and when justice is free to flow like a river, it often does not disappoint.

Powerful politicians cannot simply rape women and get away scot free. The determined Israeli community and women’s groups pursued justice to its natural conclusion.  

But not everyone accused of rape is guilty.

Sometimes a rape report may be fabricated or lacks evidence. Then not all rape cases are reported. For every case that goes to court, many more are not reported and their victims suffer in silence.

A Goa politician, John Fernandes, on bail for raping a Russian woman in 2009 has reportedly absconded.

The police have been criticised for their shoddy policing. When two politicians criticised the victim that “the victim should not have been out late at night with men,” the Russian Consulate protested and “even offered to issue an advisory asking its citizens not to remain outside hotels after 10pm,” reported the online Indian Congress.com

Defamation or rape?

Rape is a pernicious crime against women.

Remarks that target women as the provocateurs or were somehow in the wrong place at the wrong time or asking for it are insane. Such cruel and unjust remarks detract from the true cause of rape and the deep-rooted problems of the rapists.  

Some years ago, I watched a sad documentary on jailed Pakistani rape victims who failed to produce four witnesses to their rapes. Ironically the justice system instead of helping victimised them again.   

Women in Malaysia are more fortunate that they have laws that conform more to our contemporary values of justice to protect them. But often it is not the laws but the circumstances and pressure they face after the rape.

Rapists in positions of power can threaten or pay off their victims or worse conspire against them.

How do you report a rape case against someone who is powerful and may even hold your life in his hands?

How does a helpless foreign worker get help when even the wife takes the husband’s side?
There are no easy answers only an urgent need to help victims.   

Society must make it easier for rape victims to get the support they need and protect them. In Malaysia, rape victims often have to endure insensitive and painful police procedures, not to mention the trauma in court. There is urgent need to help rape victims, especially foreign workers.

An online blog has named the minister.

He must now sue for defamation or be damned.

Whatever happens next the government has to act. It may want to take a cue from the Israeli authorities and let the law take its course.

Defamation or a rape trial – time will tell unless the victim acts first. The government must come clean or will be crticised for yet another cover-up. 

 

STEVE OH is the author of Tiger King of the Golden Jungle. He is a business and property developer, singer, composer, and certified Master Personal Fitness Trainer, and charity worker. He wants Malaysia to be the Promised Land and not lost Land of Promise.