“Perpetrators who go unpunished, will continue intimidating, humiliating and traumatising the victims thus resulting, at least, in an unhealthy working environment.”

- Federal Court judge Justice Suriyadi Halim Oma

COMMENT | Since when has dressing appropriately ever stopped some men from harassing, molesting and raping women in Malaysia? This horse manure coming from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) president Mohd Taufek Razak that sexual harassment is merely a relationship gone wrong is the kind of nonsense that religious authorities claim: that stricter control is needed in the way women behave and think.

Here are some of my points to clarify the matter because there was a whole load of dumbness in the NUJ statement.

“…the issue of sexual harassment faced by female journalists is not new.”

Really? If it is not “new”, then what has the NUJ done about it?

“…suggested that female journalists dress appropriately and be mindful of their conduct.”

Except there is enough empirical evidence in this country and in many so-called “religious states” that harassment, assaults and misogynist behaviour towards women has nothing to do with the way they dress. Indeed, women dressing appropriately has not stopped women from getting harassed or assaulted.

"In the context of female journalists, particularly attractive ones, this (sexual harassment) can easily happen if both sides reciprocate."

Sexual harassment is not about reciprocity. It is about an imbalance of power. It is about specific attitudes certain men, and women, have towards women. Believing that women should dress “appropriately”, for instance, is the kind of attitude that enables men to believe that they can behave any way they want.

“…it was natural for men to be attracted to women and for women to be attracted to men they like, and it was the process that determines whether this devolves into sexual harassment.”

Yes, and it also natural for some men to be attracted to other men and some women to be attracted to other women and some people to self-identify as the opposite gender. But what has this got to do with unwelcome sexual advances? A woman (in this instance) just wants to do her job and a man (enabled by social and religious imbalances) gives her unwanted attention.

Remember, this is a country where the religious police knock down doors to stop Muslims from engaging in consensual sex but who seem oblivious to the harassment that some women face in Malaysia.

This is also a country that does not have a sexual harassment law, although it does have various provisions in various laws which recognise this tort. To get a better understanding of this, readers are directed to an article last year by Salleh Buang who served in the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Not only is this a complex example of how the system works when it comes to this type of crime, but the landmark decision, which should surprise nobody of a sexual harassment case, involved employees of Lembaga Tabung Haji.

By the way, this particular case involved a female employee of Tabung Haji suing her male superior. I wonder if she was dressed inappropriately? “In her submission, the victim had said that the appellant asked her to be his second wife, compared a man’s potency to coconuts and asked her if she preferred being in a relationship with married men.”

“The (interaction) could become negative if other factors are involved, such as the way the female journalist communicates, presents herself during an interview, socialises and the limits that she sets."

Except, of course, the issue here is not how the woman behaves but the entitled attitude of the man. If a man thinks that his position entitles him to certain privileges, then it does not matter how the woman behaves.

From the appeal in the case highlighted in the above article – “On June 2, 2016, Suriyadi Halim Omar FCJ held that the ‘ingredients of sexual harassment are present in abundance’ in this case, a persistent and deliberate course of ‘unreasonable and oppressive conduct targeted at the respondent, calculated to cause alarm, fear and distress to her’.” The appeal was dismissed.

"Female journalists must have strong integrity and use appropriate ways to obtain news stories."

This is such a stupid statement. Not only does the NUJ president blame the victim, but he also implies that in sexual harassment cases, the woman (or man) does have "strong integrity", whatever this means.

And what are the appropriate ways for women journalists to obtain stories? Does he really contend that there is a difference between the way how male and female journalists obtain stories? Is this taught in journalism schools or is this particular to Malaysia?

“Only exposing it in the media is not sufficient.”

Actually, it would be sufficient in a country where there are laws prohibiting such behaviour and where the security apparatus acts on these reports. But here in Malaysia, victims are told to make police reports, which go nowhere. They apparently cannot rely on the union that is supposed to represent them because they are told to dress appropriately and have strong integrity.

I have no idea if the NUJ president has children, but what would he say if his appropriately dressed daughter tells him that her male superior – who no doubt may be devout man or at least, that is his public image – tells her that he had a dream of her “riding him in bed," and then stroked her thigh even though she was wearing a headscarf and full-length dress. 

Would he consider this harassment or would he claim that this sort of behaviour is difficult to prove and that maybe his daughter was sending out signals to this man?

Perhaps the NUJ president should attempt to understand the concluding remarks of Federal Court judge Suriyadi Halim Omar: that sexual harassment is a serious misconduct in whatever shape or form, and cannot be tolerated.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.