Sex abuse and human trafficking in Malaysia
Sex abuse and human trafficking in Malaysia
Rina Jimenez-David, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Asia News Network,
Manila
Some years ago, I heard stories about Filipino women
trafficked into Sabah and set up in brothels just outside the
border of Brunei. A prosperous but conservative sultanate ruled
under strict Islamic precepts where entertainment and recreation
are enjoyed only by members of the royal family, Brunei has no
nightclubs or brothels for the patronage of its wealthy but non-
royal citizens. So the houses of ill repute lying just a short
drive away across the border provide ordinary Bruneians "welcome"
relief from their drab existence. At the same time, the
arrangement allows the Sultanate to maintain Brunei's image as a
squeaky-clean Islamic state.
The trafficking of Filipinas for purposes of prostitution in
Malaysia has been going on for decades. In the book Nightmare
Journeys: Filipina Sojourns through the World of Trafficking,
"Alicia" tells of traveling to Johor Bahru, a Malaysian town this
time just outside the border with Singapore, to work as a dancer
in a club. She was just 15 at the time.
Apparently, Johor Bahru is well known among male tourists and
residents in "squeaky-clean" Singapore, which deems its pristine
streets fit only for "wholesome" entertainment. For more carnal
forms of recreation, the men need just drive across the causeway
into "JB", where women -- Filipinas and Thais mostly -- offer
their charms.
I can't believe Malaysian authorities were completely ignorant
of the existence of the brothel camps in Sabah or of the huge
entertainment complexes in Johor Bahru. In fact, "Alicia" told me
that the reason she decided to leave after a year was that
Malaysian immigration police began raiding the clubs in that city
after one of her Filipina colleagues escaped and took up with a
Malaysian policeman. In fact, it seems profitable, policy on the
part of the Malaysian government to tolerate the proliferation of
sex establishments along their borders to help their puritanical
neighbors maintain the myth of social uprightness while allowing
their restless residents to blow off some steam.
It might have eased Mahathir Mohammad's conscience, too, to
know that the women victimized by the sex syndicates were
foreigners and "infidels," so there was nothing to worry his good
Muslim soul about.
But at the same time I can't believe Filipino authorities knew
nothing of the trafficking of Filipinas to Malaysia and
everywhere else in the world where there's a market for our
women. At every step of the process -- from recruitment, to
having papers processed, going through immigration, dealing with
embassies abroad, and then seeking justice against the
traffickers -- government officials have proven to be
accessories, if not ringleaders, in the criminal activity.
Which is why all this fuss being raised about the sexual
exploitation of women deportees by Malaysian police, an act in
itself condemnable, seems belated, if not a tad bit hypocritical,
when voiced by Filipino officials. The frightful truth is that
local officials have long known about the sexual exploitation of
women in our shores and abroad. Sex trafficking has been and
remains a big business, and it has grown only because authorities
have allowed it.
About the only good thing arising from the sex abuse scandal
is that it has brought the trafficking of Filipinas into Malaysia
out in the open.
Bishop Ramon Arguelles has even come out to accuse "members of
Congress and military officials" of involvement with white
slavery rings operating in Sabah. Arguelles, who chairs the
Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and
Itinerant People (ECMI), said the Christian women who were turned
into "sex slaves" by Malaysian police while in detention were
probably victims of the white slavery gangs.
In Thursday's news report, Arguelles was quoted as saying
government agencies were aware of the trafficking that was going
on "but were not working hard to stop the malpractice." Says the
bishop: "Now we are reaping the whirlwind."
So how seriously, do you think, Mahathir and other Malaysian
officials will take the recent protest of the Philippine
government regarding the sexual abuse of Filipina deportees? No
matter how strongly worded and how close it skirts the borders of
diplomatic language, the protest loses moral force in the wake of
government's indifference to the long-standing problem of
trafficking of our women.
For almost a decade now, women's organizations involved in the
issue of trafficking, most notably the Coalition against
Trafficking of Women (CAT-W), have fought tenaciously for the
passage of an Anti-Trafficking Law.
As it did in the last Congress, the proposed Anti-Trafficking
measure has been passed by the House of Representatives, but is
finding it hard going in the Senate. Though I'm not so naive to
believe that the passage of a piece of legislation would bring an
end to the extremely profitable (and extremely cruel) trade in
our women, a law would at least be a formal statement of
government policy against it, while redefining the status of the
women in the sex industry from "criminals" to "victims".
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is right to express, in the
strongest terms possible, her and her government's anger and
dismay at the sexual abuse of Filipino women over whom the
Malaysian authorities had custodial responsibility. But for this
outrage to be credible and be imbued with real moral certitude,
she should take the lead in addressing the issue of sex
trafficking of Filipinas, and not just to Malaysia. Certifying
the Anti-Trafficking bill for Senate passage would be a good
first step.