Many women across the world have spoken out against their sexual abusers ever since the #MeToo movement gained more fame as almost all of the Hollywood fraternity stood by the movement. It’s a movement to bring awareness towards the existence of sexual abuse/harassment while giving hope to the survivors in efforts to put an end to this plague.
Source: NST
As the survivors’ voices grow louder, more victims around the world are coming forward to expose their assaulters. Good on them!
Similarly, a Malaysian student has recently come forth and claimed that her lecturer allegedly tried to harass her several times. The issue was brought to light by a Facebook page, Thambi Tea Innum Varale, on which the story was shared. Such a brave girl!
According to the page, the alleged abuser is a chemistry lecturer from a local university who has committed this despicable act many times. Even though reports were made against the alleged abuser, all efforts were in vain because no further action was taken.
Source: Facebook
However, after the post was made viral, more of his other victims have also come forward to support the cause and share their encounter with the man.
A Research Assistant shared her plight as the same man would pass inappropriate sexual comments to her and even gave her several panic attacks due to his stalker-ish behaviour. Oh dear, poor girl!
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Another fellow lecturer who works in the same department with the predator also showed support to the victim as she also claimed to be harassed by him.
In an email, she wrote,
“Good job, girl. We are extremely proud of you. Hopefully the pervert will be caught soon.”
Source: Facebook
She continued,
“I am a lecturer who works in the same department with the man. He keeps harassing me that I had to shift to a new place in the office.”
“I made two verbal complaints to the director and HR (Human Resource) manager, but no action was taken.”
Screenshots of messages sent by the pervert were taken and shared on the page too. You can see some of the messages below:
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Hence, to find a solution to this matter, the student created a petition on change.org to seek justice and create awareness about the issue. At the time of writing, approximately 4,200 people have signed the petition. They aim to reach 5,000 signatures for the cause.
Moving on, the petition was later shared by a famous Indian singer, Chinmayi, who posted the petition on her personal Twitter account.
Students Petitioning a University in Malaysia to take action against a Lecturerhttps://t.co/8yYhTKYVyI#MeToo #Malaysia pic.twitter.com/cIQ2Zut1gl
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 12, 2018
FYI, Chinmayi has recently joined the #MeToo movement (in India) to speak out against sexual abusers in India.
After the petition went viral, the lecturer decided to post a statement on his Facebook to share his side of the story. In his statement, he claimed that his profile was hacked and requested the victims to step forward with the screenshots of the convo as he intends to lodge a police report.
Source: Facebook
In another post, he ‘gave’ the victims 48 hours to provide evidence to the university’s investigation team but if they fail to do so, he will file a complaint against them for both civil and criminal charges.
Besides that, the alleged abuser said that since a noted Indian singer has retweeted it, thus it has become a false accusation on an international level.
He also noted that the Whatsapp messages may be fake because there are apps that could be utilised to create fake Whatsapp messages.
What do you think about the alleged abuser’s confession?
Source: Facebook
That being said, as of Monday (14 October 2018), an update on change.org revealed that the particular lecturer has been suspended by the university but the legal investigation is still ongoing. Following that, the lecturer has yet to come forth to give another statement.
This is scary!
Hopefully, a solution to this issue will soon be at hand and justice will be served accordingly. Meanwhile, for those who are survivors of sexual assault/harassment, we urge you to reach out to the right sources like Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) for help, or you can also lodge a complaint against the abuser to the police.
Don’t suffer in silence when help can be found! Take care, everyone!
Also read: Study: Sexual Abuse Cases Of 20,000 M’sian Children Were Hidden By BN Govt For 10 Years
