BEFORE YOU SAY LIM GUAN ENG IS ANTI-MALAY, NEVER FORGET THIS!!

Alexander Leo Morris

BACK IN 1994, THE THEN CHIEF MINISTER OF MALACCA, ABDUL RAHIM THAMBY CHIK, WAS REPORTED TO HAVE RAPED A 15-YEAR-OLD MALAY SCHOOLGIRL (UNDER MALAYSIAN LAW, SEX WITH A MINOR CONSTITUTES STATUTORY RAPE). 

LIM GUAN ENG, CURRENTLY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG AND THE THEN MP FOR KOTA MELAKA, SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE RAPE OF A MINOR AFTER THE GIRL’S GRANDMOTHER-CUM-GUARDIAN, WHO WAS ALSO LIM’S CONSTITUENT, TURNED TO HIM FOR HELP.
 
15 HOWEVER, FAR FROM DESERVING JUSTICE, BOTH LIM AND THE SCHOOLGIRL RECEIVED THEIR “DUES”. LIM WAS JAILED FOR 18 MONTHS FOR SPEAKING UP AGAINST THE RAPE.HOWEVER, RELEASED AFTER 12 MONTHS ON AUGUST 25, 1999. 

DUE TO HIS INCARCERATION, HE WAS DISALLOWED FROM STANDING FOR ELECTION TO PUBLIC OFFICE FOR A PERIOD OF 5 YEARS, AND HE WAS THEREFORE INELIGIBLE TO CONTEST IN THE 2004 MALAYSIAN GENERAL ELECTION.. 

WHILE THE GIRL WAS GIVEN THREE YEARS “PROTECTIVE CUSTODY”. AS FOR RAHIM, BECAUSE OF THE RAPE AND PENDING CORRUPTION CHARGES, HE WAS FORCED TO RESIGN, AFTER A 12-YEAR STINT AS MALACCA’S CHIEF MINISTER.

BUT THE JUDICIARY SAW RAHIM ESCAPE PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME COMMITTED; THIS CAME ABOUT AFTER THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR WITHDREW THE CHARGE CITING LACK OF EVIDENCE. THE CORRUPTION CHARGES AGAINST RAHIM WERE ALSO DROPPED.

"If I fail and have to go to jail, I have no regrets. I have no regrets of going down fighting for the principles of truth and justice and pursuit of human rights, especially women's rights. 

There can be no women's rights if female rape victims are considered equally responsible, and even detained, whilst the accused remain free."-Lim Guan Eng