She has just been brutally violated by a man. Knowing only too well the shame that attaches itself to rape, she does not feel she can speak to anyone about the violence - at least not yet. This includes her friends and family. Her body is hurt and she is in pain. She finally calls a friend, who refers her to WAO, and she speaks to one of the social workers there. For reasons of her own, she does not want to make a police report. The social worker accompanies her to the One Stop Crisis Centre at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital (HKL) for medical attention. Instead of receiving efficient service that can help to reduce the trauma she has already faced, her experience can only be described as painful.

The One Stop Crisis Centre, or OSCC, was set up as an inter-agency service that manages the medical, legal and counselling needs of domestic violence survivors, later extended to rape survivors. The need for this service stemmed from the lack of comprehensive crisis intervention from related government agencies towards survivors of violence against women. After extensive dialogue between women's organisations and the Ministry of Health, this service was established in HKL. In 1996, the Minister of Health announced that OSCCs will be instituted in every State hospital.

The need for such a service is tremendous. Prior to the OSCC, a survivor of rape or domestic violence will, in addition to the trauma she has already faced, have to go through various agencies to ensure that she gets comprehensive support. This can be wearying and confusing to her. As a result, many survivors may chose to opt out of the system and be denied the rights available to her. In addition, many cases of rape and domestic violence goes unreported and unaddressed. The issue of violence against women in this context becomes less visible, the experiences of survivors are lost and our knowledge of this issue and consequently, our ability to reduce such violence diminishes.

On paper, the OSCC looks like a good solution. With the involvement of the Ministry of Health, women's groups, the police, the Medical Social Workers Department, Legal Aid and the Islamic Religious Bureau in developing a protocol for crisis intervention, survivors of rape and domestic violence should receive efficient, sensitive and comprehensive attention from such centres. However, from the experience, this does not seem to be the case.

The rape survivor mentioned above sought such support from the HKL OSCC recently. She was refused a medical checkup by the doctor because she did not have a police report. This is despite the fact that medical treatment is supposed to be top priority at the OSCC, and police reports should only be encouraged after her physical and emotional needs are seen to by medical officers, social workers and counsellors. Eventually, she relented and agreed to make a police report. According to the OSCC protocols, she should not need to move. A police officer is supposed to see her in the ward, record her statement in confidence and begin investigation.

Instead, she had to go to the police unit located at the hospital and recount her story several times in a public space to different police officers before she could be assigned an investigating officer to record her statement. This demonstrates extreme insensitivity to the possible increase of her trauma when she relives the experience with each repetition, particularly with the lack of confidentiality. By then, it was 8pm, five hours after she initially went to the OSCC, and she still has not received any medical attention. When the female investigating officer arrived, her questions were seeped with stereotypes and a lack of compassion or sensitivity. Questions like, "[w]hy couldn't you scream at that time? Is it maybe that you also liked him?" were thrown at the survivor, and she was threatened with a charge for false report if she did not turn up at the police station later in the week. After seven hours at the hospital, she was finally given a medical examination.

This is an appalling state of affairs. The survivor informed WAO's social worker that after what she has experienced, she will advice anyone who has been raped to forget about going to the police or hospital for help.

How can we have failed to support the needs of rape survivors when we express outrage at newspaper reports on this matter? OSCC is almost at its tenth year running, and yet the agents involved seem to have little understanding on the impetus and protocols of the service, or the dynamics of rape. The support that follows after rape is crucial to help the healing of the individuals, and forms an important step in eliminating the issue.

When the system that is instituted to help survivors revictimises them again and again, we have to seriously examine ourselves. How is it that after many many efforts at public education on the dimensions of rape, police officials are still inexcusably demonstrating prejudice that continues to silence and blame survivors? Why are our medical officials concerned more about legality than the welfare of patients? In what way is it possible for us to demand more accountable services from the government, and support women in our country who have been through such violence? We need to take action critically and immediately; whether this be writing letters to newspapers, government departments and state agencies, speak to our local MPs or just raising awareness on the issue of rape. Otherwise, the perpetuation of harm to rape survivors will silently continue with our complicit apathy.

Jaclyn Kee
20 February 2005

Talk Back to wao@wao.org.my
* Ten Years After Beijing was the last issue of WAO's Fortnightly Column on Sunday Mail. We were informed by Sunday Mail that the space for this column has been designated for advertising. We will continue to post previous articles that have not yet been posted on our site until this final one.