A VILLAGE security and development committee (JKKK) chairman in Penang, who allegedly molested a waitress at an entertainment outlet last week, had left his name card at the shop, in the hope the victim would contact him to settle the matter without involving the police.

The man – who used to be a DAP assemblyman’s aide – allegedly tried to settle things quietly with money through a third party, his alleged victim, a 21-year-old college student said.

The victim had a “tell-it-all” press conference organised earlier today by Parti Cinta Malaysia. 

“I am just a normal student doing part-time work while waiting for my accounting diploma results to lessen my family’s burden while I further my education. 

“For him (the suspect) to do this to me, and then try to pay me off to settle is an insult. I use my hands to work, not my body,” she said at a tell-all press conference today.

The woman, who turned up for the press conference with a baseball cap and a surgical face mask, said the incident occurred on July 6 – her first working day at the entertainment outlet on Lebuh Pantai.

She started work at 8.20pm and served a table with two men – one of whom was the suspect she identified by name.

While she was serving his table, he allegedly had his hands on her; and later when he left for the car park to get his car at about 11pm, he asked her to accompany him, she said. 

“It was my first day. I wasn’t sure what to do and I was afraid to offend a customer. So I went with him to the back. We used the back door,” she said, speaking in Mandarin.

It was at the car park, she said, where the suspect allegedly made his sexual advances, molested her, tried to get her to perform oral sex on him, and offered to pay her money to spend the night with him.

She described the dark passageway where it all happened, saying that the suspect had pushed her against the wall where she could not get away. 

“I tried to push him away repeatedly but he was stronger. I could only cry and kept telling him ‘no’.”

“The man remarked that we only kissed and there was no sexual intercourse. He just told me to go back in and work. 

“Before that he asked me how much I wanted for a night or for performing oral sex. RM300 or RM500?

“I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to tell the others in the outlet. I went to the bathroom and called a friend, who was going to meet me at my workplace. My friend came and we told the other staff. Then we lodged a police report,” she said.

She said she and her friend then learned from the staff that the suspect had left his business card at the outlet before and was a regular, and it was through that they learned of his identity and his link to DAP.

The woman lodged the police report about two hours after the incident at the Lebuh Pantai station just down the road.

“I was scheduled to work that day (July 7) too. One of my colleagues told me via WeChat that the suspect, through a third party, had contacted the shop to ask me to meet to settle the matter. 

“The person had asked if money compensation would do it,” she said, and played back the voice message her friend had sent her that afternoon.

Asked what made her so brave to hold a press conference, she said her family encouraged her to speak out against the serious offence so that others would be more careful and not become victims.

The suspect has been remanded to assist investigations, Northeast police district chief Asst Comm Anuar Omar said.

Deputy Chief Minister I Mohd Rashid Hasnon confirmed that the suspect was chairman of a JKKK until the end of the term on December 31 next year.

Rashid, whose portfolio includes community relations that JKKK matters come under, said the SOP (standard operation procedure) for such situations would involve suspending the suspect from duties until his case was completed.

“If there is proof against him, we will take appropriate action. For now, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he said. – July 14, 2017.