Commentary: Too many knew, too few acted in GISB child abuse scandal in Malaysia
LACK OF GOVERNANCE
The children found in the GISB network resided in welfare homes operating as orphanages, placing them in a regulatory grey area that raises questions about governance.
In Malaysia, there is no systematic registration or licensing of welfare homes and orphanages. The state counts about a dozen state-run homes, however, a simple social media search will lead you to thousands of fundraisers for children’s homes.
In the absence of a proper registration system, to date, there exists no data on the number of undocumented orphans. Despite three years in power, the government has not initiated meaningful reforms. Instead, proposed amendments to the constitution last year to remove the article that protects children from statelessness sparked furious backlash for fear it could put children at greater risk.
Section 19B of the Federal Constitution currently protects foundlings, providing them automatic citizenship. In practice, civil servants have systematically denied foundlings citizenship on the assumption that they would be illegitimate children born out of wedlock or children of illegal migrants. In fact, these children are born to mothers in extreme vulnerable conditions.
The existence of the foundlings highlights sensitive societal and political issues in Malaysia, including teen pregnancy, rape, child marriages and baby dumping. Denying orphans their right to citizenship deprives them of access to public services, including healthcare and education.
A child without any documentation means he or she is unregistered. Nobody knows where they are, where they are from, or where they might be taken, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers and exploiters.
In November 2022, journalist Zaidi Azmi exposed the reality of orphan girls turned 18 pushed out of welfare homes – undocumented and uneducated – and the ineluctable risk of being co-opted, if not kidnapped, by sex traffickers.
A few years before, in 2016, Al Jazeera revealed the existence of several networks of baby sellers through clinics, baby farms and suspicious orphanages. Today, orphan girls are still preyed on.
