2007 05: Ignorant male students falling into ‘rape’ trap

The Star online. News. Nation. Friday May 25, 2007

KUALA TERENGGANU: Many students are falling into the “rape” trap. They believe they have willing sex partners – until the girl lodges a report.

Many do not understand the consequences of their behaviour, said Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar.

“When I interviewed some of the students who are facing rape charges, they posed me one common question, what is rape. They say they did not force their partners to have sex,” he said.

“Therefore, why should they be charged with rape although both suka sama suka (had consented) before engaging in sexual intercourse?” he said at a Colloquium On Crime Prevention here on Wednesday.

Noh said these students failed to understand that even if there was mutual consent, it was a crime to have sex with underage girls.

He said the matter had reached an alarming stage and school authorities at all levels should be aware of it.

He said the ministry was using the holistic approach to address the issue by getting several government agencies and non-governmental organisations to help.

“Prevention is better than cure so the ministry is advocating that every school set up crime prevention clubs,” he said.

He noted that disciplinary problems in schools dropped last year compared to 2005.

Cases of students given temporary suspension dropped from 0.9% to 0.4%, those expelled from 0.4% to 0.2%, those caned from 3.8% to 1.4% and bullying cases from 0.03% in 2005 to 0.02% last year.

On another matter, Noh said six school principals have been issued with show-cause letters for sweeping disciplinary problems under the carpet this year.

“We have our way of getting details on delinquency cases even if the principals attempt to conceal information,” he said.