The sex offender who has done time may feel discriminated against if he continues to be on a blacklist, notwithstanding that victims of sexual offences pay a heavy price, and many continue to pay all their lives.

IT was not too long ago that when the word “right” left the lips of your average Malaysian (that’s you and I, in case you’re wondering who this average person is), it wasn’t about entitlement.

Yes, you read that right, from left to right.

Correctness and direction was what we usually meant by “right”.

These days, more of us have become increasingly aware and speak regularly of rights, with regards to entitlements and privileges.

This is not a bad thing.

We should be aware of our rights because you don’t want to be in the position of not knowing what you have until it’s restricted or taken away from you.

There are many rights that have been conferred on Malaysians under the Federal Constitution; some are well known and others perhaps less so.

There is the right to the freedom of speech and expression and the right to assemble, as accorded to us under Article 10.

By the way, the full wording of the right to assemble is “all citizens have the right to assemble peaceably and without arms”.

This means that if you plan to assemble, bringing along for whatever reason incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails and cutting instruments such as parang are a definite no-no.

Somebody asked me the other day if Flaming Sambucas were all right, but I think such cocktails should be reserved for post-rally gatherings at your usual watering hole.

The “without arms” bit is also interesting in another sense. Now, I’m not a lawyer, let alone a constitutional expert, but I suppose you can’t go to a rally “dressed to kill”.

It’s a lame joke, I know.

This is serious stuff, I understand, but does this mean that yellow T-shirts are now regarded as high fashion?

I kid you. Please don’t report me. And I digress.

Free speech and peaceful assembly are probably two of the better known rights among Malaysians at the moment.

Do you also know that other types of freedom accorded to you, the citizen, include the right to life and liberty, and to move freely and reside in any part of the country?

Interestingly, it seems also that “no person shall be held in slavery” and that “all forms of forced labour are prohibited”, or so says Article 6.

Yeah, right … try telling that to the guy slaving at the office.

But seriously, I am heartened by the increasing interest in the things that have been accorded to us by the Constitution.

It shows that you care, not just about yourself but also about others, your fellow citizens.

I might not agree with other people on some issues, but at least I am aware that they have a right to sound equally as incoherent as I do, if they so choose.

A few days ago, I came across a story in a local publication on what has happened so far on the move to register sex offenders.

“Move” might be too presumptuous a word for me to use here as it seems there hasn’t been much movement since it was suggested several years ago.

According to sources cited by the publication, the Women’s, Family and Community Development Min­istry plans to initiate discussions soon with the police on the goal of having a Sexual Offender Registration Act.

The police went on record to state that although they are open to such discussions, one of the key issues that needed to be resolved first was the rights of convicted sex offenders.

The police are supportive of such an Act but they also say “convicted offenders will feel they are being singled out if their names were made known to the public, especially since they have done time in prison for their crimes”.

Some NGOs argue that having such a register is only one component of what should be a comprehensive and holistic approach towards sex offenders who have left prison.

More importantly, they believe that the rights of the people concerned must be looked into.

Four years ago, I argued in this column for the registration of sex offenders.

First of all, victims of sexual offences such as rape and incest continue to suffer long after the event.

Rape Trauma Syndrome, which is an established medical condition, affects rape victims and disrupts their lives for years.

And child sexual abuse affects the physical and emotional development of victims well after the incident.

The long-term effects of child sexual abuse include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual dysfunction and substance abuse.

They are also twice as likely to attempt suicide compared with children who had not been abused.

I will argue again here that victims of sexual offences pay a heavy price, and many continue to pay all their lives.

So what about their rights?

If the suffering of the victims continues for many, many years after the commission of the offence, what is that compared with being registered as a sex offender and making the fact known to the people in the community that you live in?

We already have laws to tackle and address any discrimination or harm that might be threatened against sex offenders who have served their sentences.

Now we need a law that will help us to protect ourselves and our families from any potential repeat offenders.

> Raslan Sharif would like to see this happen soon.

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