Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar has stated that the idea of setting up a sex offender’s registry in Malaysia is unnecessary, despite mounting public calls for a system to monitor individuals such as convicted child porn addict Nur Fitri Azeem Nordin.
Khalid did however say that setting up such a registry would not be an insurmountable obstacle for the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), but since Malaysia already has a database of persons with a criminal record, it would be redundant.
“It’s not a problem for us. But as I said we already have a criminal registry, so it serves the same purpose with a sex offenders registry,” he said at a press conference in Bukit Aman today, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online‘s Syed Jaymal Zahiid.
“To me the existing criminal record registry is already enough. If we set up another registry for those involved in sexual crimes it would overlap.”
Khalid’s statement is in contrast with comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Abu Hanifah Aman, who yesterday released a statement calling for a registry drafted specifically to list down sex offenders in the country, in order to facilitate more efficient police monitoring of their activities.
The debate over a Malaysian sex offender registry stems from the case of Nur Fitri, a Malaysian math student at London’s Imperial College and Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) scholar who was convicted in the UK of possession of more than 30,000 articles of child pornography, and who might have participated in photographing and videotaping underage children in sexual situations.
Nur Fitri was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a British court.
Malaysian social media erupted in outrage over the news that MARA was planning to appeal Nur Fitri’s case in the UK, and would faciltate the continuation of his studies in Malaysia after he was released from prison, due to the government agency’s estimation that Nur Fitri had the potential to be a “national asset”.
On Twitter and Facebook, a #NoSecondChance hashtag campaign took off and gained popular traction, while an online petition was set up urging MARA to not make allocations for Nur Fitri to rebuild his scholastic career after his incarceration.
Anifah, and later Prime Minister Najib Razak, responded by stating the Federal Government would make no move to appeal Nur Fitri’s case.
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