THE Puncak Alam societal stigmatisation and exclusion of the family of Saiful Nizam Ab Wahab – whose daughter Ain Husniza Saiful stood up against a teacher and the authorities for trivialising rape in class – is akin to excluding those who are perceived to be a potential source of disease and may pose threat to society.

Exclusion or ostracisation is an invisible form of bullying.

People are dismayed at what is happening to Saiful and his family and at the same time are disturbed by other societal events, for example a doctor driven to commit suicide due to bullying at the workplace.

Do we, as a society, have the moral grounds to demand justice for bullying, in schools or in the workplace, in a country where the family of Saiful are bullied for standing up to ‘sickness’?

To recap, Ain was in an online class and the subject was about laws that protect minors from sexual abuse and harassment, when the teacher suddenly interjected: “If you want to rape someone, make sure they are above 18.”

It appears that Malaysians are now undergoing a shift from their willingness to live in mutual association to an urge to practice stigmatisation of individuals, groups, and nations that do not conform with perceived standards of behaviour.

Was it the fear of something unknown that accounts for the negativity towards Saiful?

Social conformity is synonymous with mental health, and social non-conformity with mental illness.

Do we live in an age where normality has become a sickness?

The past paved the way to the present and the country has been in a state of sickness and decline for the past two decades and normality has been a corrupted standard for just as long.

What many Malaysians didn’t see or had simply refused to see, couldn’t be ignored any longer.

What Ain did, in standing up against the teacher and the school, should not be forgotten.

Was your conscience and that of millions of other Malaysians stirred? Or we are worried that we will be criticised for being too emotional too, a claim for which conservatives openly criticised Ain?

If you agreed what Ain did was right, that would be turning point in this country’s attitude towards gender-based discrimination and violence against women, which has been an intrinsic part of Malaysia’s public education system.

Ain has singlehandedly shifted the grounds, changed mindsets of a lot of Malaysians, and laid the groundwork for progress in treatment of the fairer sex.

Years of political chicanery by politicians and elites has ripped a path of destruction through every community, with no one spared in the devastation of the marginalised, disadvantaged, minorities and the fairer sex.

It is a fact.

A big portion of Malaysians know it. And now, younger Malaysians are aware and conscious of it.

Today’s generation of young Malaysians probably is the most progressive, thoughtful, inclusive generation that the country has ever seen. 

They are pulling the country toward justice in so many ways, forcing the government to confront the huge gap in economic inequity between those at the top and everyone else; forcing the politicians to confront the existential crisis of climate and the 3Rs, which they used to rule and divide the races in this country so successfully for the past 60 years.

Young Malaysians today are perturbed and disturbed that the government deemed it fit to use public resources to defend the teacher and the school principal named in Ain’s lawsuit.

Across nearly every faith and race in this country, the same principle holds: we should treat each other as we would like to be treated ourselves. 

For too long, the vast majority of the rakyat have allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester.

It is time for all right-minded Malaysians to act because it is what the core values of this nation call us to do. 

When we lift each other up, we are all lifted. When any one of us is held down, we are all held back.

Every Malaysian is responsible and should play a role to open the promise of this country to every other Malaysian, regardless of race and religion. 

This means we need to make the issue for which Ain stands the business of the whole of government.

Eradicate gender-based discrimination and violence against women from the public education system.

Public funds and resources should not be applied judiciously for the teacher and the principal.

Doing so gives an impression to young Malaysians that the government condones their actions instead of calling them out and let the matter be decided in the courts of law. 

Every one of us is in a battle for the soul of this nation. 

Our soul will be troubled if an issue such as that Ain raised is not addressed and stamped out.  

If we can’t eliminate it, we can forget about eliminating any other issues that divide this nation.

It is corrosive and it is destructive.

We need to make equity and justice part of what we do every day — today, tomorrow, and every day.

If the vast majority share these values, please get together to support Saiful and his family, and have your views heard by the government.

Or tomorrow it could be your daughter who will be the victim and when that happens, you will find yourself voiceless. – June 9, 2022.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.