Replace large orphanages with smaller residential homes

The Star, Nov 28, 2012

I REFER to the report “NGO: More boys being sexually abused at orphanage” (The Star, Nov 23) concerning the alleged sexual abuse of three boys at a government-run home in Durian Daun, Malacca.

This was followed by “Welfare group wants quick probe of sexual abuse at home” (The Star, Nov 27) where the Malaysian Welfare and Social Organisation’s (Perbak) president,  Muhammad Khairul Hafiz, justifiably expressed concern at the apparent lack of urgency by the police’s Specialist Unit in the investigation of the matter.

It is rather ironic that such concerns were reported just during the week of a regional conference on “Child Protection” organised by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry with Unicef.

Although it was impressively hosted and well attended by delegates from Asean countries, the event was hardly reported in the mainstream press, when the proceedings actually concerned matters of universal public interest. 

During the three-day (Nov 20-22) exchange of ideas, there were optimism expressed and expectations raised in the light of such serious allegations. 

The ministry would do well to investigate speedily and with determination if not rigour, either bringing the perpetrators to book or ensuring proper emotional and organisational “closure” for the sake of all connected with this institution. 

The boys have shown incredible courage by their brave disclosures and if the authorities cannot respond speedily to their pleas for help, who can? In the interim, the home itself must shoulder its duty and responsibility to its vulnerable residents and immediately suspend staff concerned so as to enable an investigation to begin properly. 

Hopefully, it will have done so by now, without compromising the employment status of the staff concerned.

The ministry should, besides strengthening its own enforcement capabilities, examine its now archaic institutions for children across the country with a view to phasing them out.

Homes of such huge occupancy are restrained to offer “institutional care”, which resemble the Victorian-Dickensonian era and which has outlived its effectiveness in offering shelter or personal care, personal growth and development for many of those unfortunate and often unwanted children in our modern society.

Instead, community-based foster care and smaller residential regimes are, in my opinion, the preferred options.

• Jim Lim Teik Wah, Penang (Letter to The Star, Nov 28, 2012). Read more about him here.