A public consultation organised by Era Consumer has revealed there has been little improvement in enforcement attitudes and procedures designed to handle incidents of domestic violence since legislation came into force in 1994.

Era Consumer secretary-general Indrani Thuraisingham said there is a need for urgent attention to redress the situation and called on government agencies to respond. The group has a human rights committee which has taken up the cause of eliminating domestic violence.

"Crimes against women have been increasing. We think the government has not done enough," she said, when asked to comment on the issues raised at yesterday's consultation session.

The 'Public Consultation on Violence Against Women' saw several long-standing grouses being revived, including that police officers have been rough with women victims of violence when they lodged reports.

Indrani said the discussions and recommendations - for example to set up a family court and to deploy more female police officers - will be compiled as a memorandum to be submitted to the Parliamentary select committee on crime within two weeks.

The committee is currently on a road show to gather public input for amendments to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code.

'Unprofessional attitude'

At a panel discussion yesterday, a police officer conceded that there are black sheep in the police force who have acted unprofessionally in handling cases involving violence against women.

ASP Noor Azilah Junid of the Special Investigations Unit-Sexual Crimes ( photo, right ) said there are too few women police officers to handle such cases. She revealed that in Pahang, for example, there is only one woman officer.

Men in Action chairperson Dr.Rohana Ariffin ( photo, centre ) chaired the session, which also featured senior DPP Stanley Augustine and All Women's Action Society Malaysia legal advisor Pushpa Ratnam ( photo, left ) as speakers.

Noor Azilah also attributed the "unprofessional attitude" of some police officers to the burden of their workload, as current procedures are quite demanding in terms of recording the complaint and follow-up action, such as sending the victim for medical attention.

She said a proposal was submitted to the government in 2002 to set up a special investigation section to handle reports of violence against women, but that there has been no response to date.

"Violence against women is different from other crimes and so, should be handled separately," she said, also expressing the wish that she could effect changes with a snap of her fingers.

"To address the problem, it is a need to change the attitude of officers. To do this, we also need to talk about a budget."

She added that warnings have been issued by federal police headquarters at Bukit Aman that police officers who neglect taking down reports face the risk of being dismissed.

Wrong role

Pushpa said police officers should not be biased and that they should record every case reported without pre-judging the situation.

She related her shock upon hearing of an incident when two police officers acted as "counsellors" in cases of domestic violence.

"One said he would talk to the husband (of the victim) to try to settle the case. He was reluctant to take up the case," she said, adding that it is difficult to change such attitudes.

"Another police officer said men have also been abused and that they suffer mental trauma. Yes, I know this happens, but you have to see the overall statistics (to know that the greater number of cases involve women victims)," she said.

She claimed that there has been no prosecution in about 80 percent of the reported cases.

"We hope judiciary will see such cases from a wider perspective, and not merely look at the physical evidence (in determining guilt)," she said.

Pushpa also said some victims may not immediately report these incidents because of the trauma that they have experienced.

"They are shocked and traumatised. Shame, fear and confusion stop them from reporting the case immediately. There is also insufficient evidence in the majority of incest cases," she said.

Augustine stressed that the Attorney-General's Chambers requires sufficient evidence to take alleged offenders to court.

"Every report is be taken seriously and any report involving women and children is given special attention," he said.