There is a painful truth out there. The safety of women is in jeopardy. Statistics of recent years show that rape is still a crime that police are challenged with.

Statistics released by the police last year showed that rape cases increased from 1,471 in 2003 to 1,718 the following year. Ironically, the police did a 'better' job at reducing snatch thefts and robberies.

The Jan 14 gang rape and murder of 25-year-old taekwondo exponent Chee Gaik Yap (right) revealed yet again the heinous and despicable act of violence towards women.

Chee certainly was not at the wrong place at the wrong time, as some might now opine. An avid jogger, this bright young woman sadly became the target of a bunch of lusty sadists.

News of her rape and murder left many women fearing for their safety. Chee vanished after going for a jog with her younger sister along a popular track near a recreational club in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Her body, clad only in a bra with a t-shirt wrapped around her neck, was found by a motorist eight hours later. Her neck had been slashed and there was a deep wound on her head.

The police subsequently arrested six men aged between 20 and 60, with one of the suspects, in his 50s working as a security guard and the rest employed by a company organising outdoor recreational activities.

It's torture

For the newspapers, the tragedy that befell Chee's family was hot news. Whilst the media has a job to execute, it is sincerely hoped that this latest rape and murder incident is 'publicised' in an effective manner, with the aim being to educate the government on the need to deal with rape cases sensitively and judiciously.

One of the many forms of torture, rape looms as a threat to females, be they girls or women. Under no circumstances can the crime of rape be viewed with less severity. This torture only goes to create a long term sense of fear and insecurity.

In this regard, it is hoped that the earnest call by women's groups for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to re-look the definition of rape will be heard.

The Parliamentary Select Committee for Amendments to the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code report in March will suggest that the law differentiates between aggravated rape and simple rape.

Committee chairperson Radzi Sheikh Ahmad was quoted in the New Straits Times (June 23, 2005) as saying that the only amendment to the Penal Code was the additional definition of rape to include object rape. The law at present defines rape as penile penetration into the vagina.

Radzi said the committee had decided to expand on the amendments due to public feedback. The definition of aggravated rape includes:

- gang-rape that involves more that one rapist
- rape that occurs in the commission of a robbery
- rape that is committed by an assailant who knows he is HIV +
- rape where the victim is threatened with weapons
- rape where a person in authority or trust commits the crime on a subordinate

Effective measures

Women's groups are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that aggravated rape will be recognised as a separate crime from simple rape, with the punishment reflecting the gravity of the offence.

Radzi said the definition of simple rape had yet to be outlined but it had to be an act perpetrated by the rapist without the use of any force. In the case of aggravated rape, the sentence will be a mandatory five years' jail with a maximum 30 years and whipping. While the sentence for simple rape is imprisonment up to 30 years and whipping but as opposed to aggravated rape, the jail term for simple rape is not mandatory.

Citing Section 376 of the Penal Code whereby the punishment for rape is a mandatory five years jail up to a maximum 20 plus whipping, Radzi said convicted rapists received a minimum of five years irrespective of the circumstances surrounding the rape. There is nothing to differentiate an offender of aggravated rape from the perpetrator of simple rape.

Radzi said there could be circumstances where judges were disheartened to mete out a lesser penalty on the perpetrator but their discretion to impose a sentence to commensurate the severity of crime was dictated by the present law.

He added that the committee felt that judges should not be bound by this and be allowed to exercise their discretion and mete out penalties in tandem with the crime of rape committed.

The committee, comprising seven ruling and opposition MPs, began to collect public feedback on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and Penal Code in 2004. It was supposed to have submitted its report to Parliament last June but this was delayed due to the Royal Commission on the Police Force report.

Mentality shift

It is sad that violent crimes like rape fail to receive the much needed attention from both the police and the government. Unless and until it becomes a 'hot' case, a rape incident often ends up being nothing more than a piece of 'news of the day' in the newspapers.

A mentality shift on behalf of the government is urgently needed to ensure all rape cases are handled with due respect with the aim of securing justice for the rape survivor or in Chee's case, her family.

Loopholes that stand as hindrance to the enforcement of effective laws must be quickly addressed and rectified. Rape is not just any crime but a crime against humanity and this must be identified as so. It is the gross violation of one's human rights.

Rape must be acknowledged as a statutorily prohibited human rights abuse by defining it as an inhumane treatment or an abrogation to the right of privacy. Rape must also be recognised as a form of torture, for only then can this act of sexual violence be dealt with in all sincerity. The fact that the perpetrator could with much ease exploit the vulnerability and weakened resistance of his victim must never at any point be overlooked, what more forgotten.

Apt to say that Malaysia has a long way to go where the jurisprudence on rape is concerned. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, both set up by the United Nations Security Council are fine examples of the development of international jurisprudence on rape.

As scary as Chee's tragedy is, the truth is that women have to walk the streets alone, for one reason or another. They can only pray to reach home safely.

JJ RAY started her career with a mainstream publication. A non-conformist, she soon saw the barriers that went up whenever, through her writing, she tried to make the world a home for one and all.