BACK IN 1994, THE THEN CHIEF MINISTER OF MALACCA, ABDUL RAHIM THAMBY CHIK, WAS REPORTED TO HAVE RAPED A 15-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLGIRL (UNDER MALAYSIAN LAW, SEX WITH A MINOR CONSTITUTES STATUTORY RAPE). LIM GUAN ENG, CURRENTLY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG AND THE THEN MP FOR KOTA MELAKA, SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE RAPE OF A MINOR AFTER THE GIRL’S GRANDMOTHER-CUM-GUARDIAN, WHO WAS ALSO LIM’S CONSTITUENT, TURNED TO HIM FOR HELP.
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watch http://gutteruncensoreddailya.blogspot.com/2013/11/amateur-malay-couple-having-hotel-room.htm
If language, as Hegel wrote, is the medium of the journey of consciousness, young women’s consciousness is reaching a powerful place, fuelled by their awareness of being valuable, powered by their words that refuse violation. The scandal didn’t surprise me. But what surprised and delighted me is young women saying, writing and meaning ‘No’ – and being heard by a society that turns out more liberal than its leading liberals often credit it for. a world driven bythe affability of powerful men like Mahathir recent events from are shocking readmore Tan Sri Abdul Rahim TambyChik stressed that he had………. but i’m not terribly surprised. There’s a bigger picture here; amidst the details of intellectual fests in luxury hotels, disputed sexual assaults, an investigative committee seemingly of dinner party friends, alleged intimidation of the victim now, you see the wild thrashings of an old media world, imploding under its own paradoxes. An icy misogyny, blanketed by warm words, nestled here – it stands utterly exposed today.Not too far back – think 10 years ago – this media world stood puffed up with the responsibility of shaping India’s public thought. In a country where governments took great care to skip any investment education required, this world’s grip on instruments of public discourse – the English language, school networks, kinship contacts, patronage – was vice-like. Today, that grip’s been broken with resounding success. With all hues of parents determined to get kids to English-medium schools, the monopoly raj over a good life has been ripped to shreds. The old media world’s been overtaken by a democratic new space, where its claims of being the guardian of Malaysian’s liberalism are redundant. The liberal project in Malaysia- which includes women’s equality – has permeated society; those who once monopolised this should look for new jobs.Flip and glib, this media world seemingly modernised in recent years, but part of its problem lay in shadowy structures. Avoiding corporate discipline, factions preferred funding from quarters which, Lord Voldemort-like, must remain unnamed. Media work then included dinners and have-another-drink-fests, involving the people journalists are meant to scrutinise. A few token women – WAGs, wives and girlfriends, as the British press would helpfully put it – glittered atop this pile, but this remained a world driven by the affability of powerful men, rooted in a murky status quo.
But that was little reason to be despondent. After all, where else could ageing editors sport ponytails and hats and cultivate newsrooms fragrant with machismo? This was a world loud with rants on corruption and abuse, but where internal committees to probe misconduct were a bore. Instead, you could write angered columns, be on TV, host foreign film stars or propound on secularism at lit fests. Its actions differing from its words, this media grew indistinguishable from the powers that be, its misogyny becoming what Slavoj Zizek describes as “an inert stain”, one that “resisted communication and interpretation” – one that couldn’t be cleaned as it couldn’t be seen.
The Tarun Tejpal alleged sexual assault case has hit national headlines. Man of integrity, man for the masses, man who has fought all odds to speak up for rights of the oppressed, and against those who are corrupt and misuse their power is now being probed and damned for doing exactly what he fights against. The fortunate part is that there is CCTV footage and probably further evidence to substantiate her claims of assault or his of a consensual encounter. And with this episode the entire issue of sexual harassment in the workplace has come into focus. But why just focus on the workplace? If you keep a woman in her home, she is subjected to all kinds of harassment by her in-laws, husband and also subjected to sexual harassment/rape by other male family members.
If she ventures out onto the street, she’s at the mercy of perverts, roadside Romeos and criminal elements, and if she is in the workplace it’s by colleagues or coerced into ‘compromise’ by men in positions of authority. Women are simply not given the security or respect or privacy or rights they deserve from the day they are born. We can chase a few, catch a few, imprison a few, and hang a few. But until we realise as a society that it’s not few, but many men out there that need to be sent a stern message through effective policing, swift judicial process and stringent punishments, things will just go from bad to worse.
When Tehelka was accused of using sex workers in its sting operation in 2001 during NDA government to expose corruption in defence deals, many tried to justify it. They said at the end of the day it ‘exposed corruption which is the biggest enemy of the country’. Those defending Tehelka, however, did not consider that use of sex workers was not only against the ethics of journalism but also reflected the mindset which saw women as a commodity. Today, the same mindset is visible in the case in which Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal has been accused of sexual assault on his own colleague which he describes as mere a ‘bad lapse of judgment’. Clearly, the end doesn’t justify the means. And, as you sow, so shall you reap.The Tehelka sexual assault episode has been discussed threadbare by all. Depending on which side of the spectrum they are, people have taken clear stances, basically along expected lines. While the young journalist, her friends, even her colleagues along with the majority of the media seem to agree with her allegations, the powerful and ‘literary’ friends of the accused, Tehelka’s Editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, have started defending him.
While that was to be expected, what has left a completely unsavoury taste in almost every observer’s mouth has been the attempt by these worthies to tarnish the young girl’s reputation. From the first attempts to say it was ‘consensual’ to a ‘fleeting’ one, the girl is now being accused of being a ‘liar’ and that she was ‘partying’ around even after the incident and that if she was partying, she couldn’t have been ‘traumatised’ as she is claiming to be.
Among the host of absurd claims and explanations made, this one must rank as the most absurd. Who has ever said that a person who has been molested by an all powerful boss is barred from enjoying herself? If anything, I would give credit to the youngster that she maintained her dignity in the face of the beastly attack by her boss, all to ensure that the event that she and her colleagues had worked tirelessly for is not jeopardised.
It is being said that she even messaged her friends about how excited she was about the time she spent with Robert De Niro and his wife, after the ‘so-called’ rape attempt. How bizarre! If anything, she shows the maturity way beyond her age, while discharging the duty that she has been assigned – to ensure that a big Hollywood star and his wife are taken care of. You need to respect the girl, and actually be grateful that she did not create a scene. But these so called ‘intellectuals’ are using it to malign her reputation. How utterly pathetic! Or, as Arundhati Roy has said in her essay on the issue, this is like her 2nd rape.
I have often referred to the cozy clubs that exist all over. Memberships to these cliques is guarded ferociously and they don’t allow anyone else to enter even as they throw a crumb here and there to keep the general public interested. Anyone trying to break these cozy clubs is treated with disdain. A concerted attack is launched against the person to discredit him. The attack is so relentless that the person eventually gives up. Often, this attack is wrapped in flowery language and intellectualism that makes the other seem inadequate.
They have succeeded so far because those who can take them on also succumb to the crumbs often. But this vice-like grip is showing chasm with the coming of the social media, which, thankfully, despite its many flaws, does not respect the social status of wrong doers and says it the way it is – straight. Thank God!
We have all seen the flip-flops of the powerful management of the magazine on the issue. From trying to hush it up, to it being an internal issue, to a bizarre self-imposed exile, to penance, to a public apology and now this. Sad! (http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/tehelka_stings_itself_wake_up_call_for_media)
And that is not all. While seeking anticipatory bail, it is also being said that they would demand that the case be moved out of Goa as they fear they would be targeted by the local government. They must surely think the justice system is an ass. They are pre-judging that the state is biased and that they will act against. Has there been even a shred of evidence that the manner in which the state police has moved so far is biased. Why should any court even entertain a request like that?
These silly actions are making the already irretrievable situation go even more out of hand.
In Hindi, there is a saying ‘Vinashkaale Vipreet Buddhi’, which, loosely translated in to English means: Under trying times, the brain often stops functioning or makes you do wrong. Wonder if it was coined with some of these men in mind. In the meanwhile, kudos to the gutsy young journalist!
Denying any sexual harassment of a young woman law intern, former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Ganguly on Friday said he was “shocked and shattered” by the charges against him.
“I am denying everything. I have told the committee that all the allegations levelled by the intern are wrong. I don’t know how such allegations have been levelled against me,” he said.
He was giving his reaction after an apex court official released a statement that Justice Ganguly had recorded his statement before a three-judge committee that went into the intern’s allegations and has submitted its report to the Chief Justice of India.
The apex court official statement said Justice Ganguly had recorded his statement to the three-judge committee headed by Justice R M Lodha. The report was handed over to CJI Justice P Sathasivam on Thursday.
“I totally deny the allegations. I am a victim of situations,” he told television channels.
“I am not ashamed of anything,” he said in reply to a question in regard to the alleged episode which came out in public domain after the intern spoke about in a legal portal earlier this month.
He said the charges against him were totally wrong. The girl had not raised any sexual harassment issue with him, he said, adding that he had not done any physical harm to her.
The former judge said the intern worked with him though she was not officially allocated to him. She came in the place of another intern who had gone abroad after marriage. “I never put up a poster. She came on her own.”
He said the girl had come to his house on a number of occasions in connection with the work.
Asked about the charge that he had asked her to come to a hotel room, Justice Ganguly said he was in Delhi at that point of time in connection with work and she was also in Delhi.
“I know what she has said. The question is that when I was in Delhi she was also in Delhi. She came on her own to my…,” he said.
“If anybody feels uncomfortable to work with me she was free to leave,” he said, adding that there was inconsistency that she has respect for him and there was no rancour.
He said that the intern was like his child and he treated her that way.
Asked if he was worried whether the three-judge committee will pass strictures against him, he said, “I don’t know what kind of strictures will be there.”
To another question if he felt that the committee could have preconceived notions about him, he said,”I am not saying anything.”
Asked whether the allegations have cast a shadow on him, he said, he has faith in people and the people will judge him by his “conduct” and by his judicial work.
Justice Ganguly, who demitted office on February 12 last year, said that if this trend continues it will be difficult for the upright judges to continue to work.
“I have worked with several interns in my life, a large number of them and I treat them like my children. They are all well placed in several places in their lives and nobody has made such allegations. I am shocked and shattered.”
He said that his case be not compared with that of Tarun Tejpal. “Don’t compare this case with Tejpal. Please,” he told to a television channel.
To a question if asked to prove …, Justice Ganguly shot back “how can I prove the negative.”
The intern had earlier this month told a legal news portal that a “recently retired” judge with whom she was working earlier had sexually harassed.
Hit by the allegation, the Supreme Court constituted the three-judge committee to go into the charge of the intern.
Justice Ganguly was elevated to Supreme Court on December 17, 2008 and demitted office on February 3, 2012.
The intern, in a blog, had accused the retired judge of having misbehaved with her in a hotel room last December when the nation was grappling with the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in the national capital.
On November 18, the intern appeared before the panel and gave details of the incident and on November 21, she had sent certain applications and affidavits to the panel.
While setting up the panel on November 12, Justice Sathasivam had observed that he was concerned as head of the institution (judiciary).
“In the cases of sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly,” the CJI had said.
The young woman intern had first come out in public by writing her experience and ordeal in a blog of NGO ‘Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and the Environment’, with which she has been working.
She has also got support and solidarity from her employer NGO.It is extremely significant that middle-class Indian girls – like Nirbhaya, the first anniversary of whose gang rape is in 21 days – have been supported by their parents to excel. With Indian girls topping every noteworthy exam, their confidence to ignore the dust and reach for the stars has grown. Their ability to work and earn has grown. Their knowledge of their rights, from Vishaka guidelines to rape laws, has grown. In a social moment of glorious serendipity, this has coalesced with a brave new media space that lets women voice all of the above. There’s no way now that the old media’s leading lads can pose Zizek’s ironic question – ‘Che vuoi?’ Does this ‘No!’ not really mean a double ‘Yes!’? – to young women, who won’t tell them exactly where to goWonderful to see you again, my friend. Welcome to my lair. Join me for some Wild Witch’s Brew. It is of course just my garden in Sherwood Forest, turning russet and gold in the twilight months of the year, enchanting but not enchanted. The brew is a long frothy drink of cocoa. Coffee if you … Read more.
