A child rights activist has questioned the detention of four Myanmar children in Malaysia, saying authorities had no legal grounds to hold a nine-year-old boy and should have handled the case under child protection laws.
Hartini Zainudin, founder of Yayasan Chow Kit, criticized the authorities for their treatment of the children, questioning whether Malaysian children would have faced the same response.
“After 30 years in this work, I do not believe we would,” she said, adding that authorities would normally contact parents, involve welfare officers and seek mediation rather than resort to detention.
She stressed that Malaysia’s Child Act 2001 protects all children, regardless of nationality, and contains no citizenship-based restrictions.
The controversy follows a magistrate’s court decision in Bukit Mertajam on Friday to deny bail to three Myanmar boys, aged 11 and 12, who were charged with criminal intimidation of an elderly woman. The High Court later overturned the decision and granted them bail.
The three boys and a nine-year-old child were arrested on October 27 and remained in custody for four days.
According to Free Malaysia Today, Hartini said the Penal Code does not recognize children below the age of 10 as criminally responsible, while those under 14 cannot be sent to prison even if convicted.
She argued that the children should have been released under the Child Act rather than kept in custody.
Hartini also raised concerns about whether the boys understood the charges against them. Although an interpreter was provided in court, she noted that many Rohingya children do not speak Burmese, potentially leaving them unable to understand the proceedings or respond to the allegations.
She further criticized the media coverage, particularly the publication of photographs showing the children being taken to court, their residential address and details identifying their families.
Referring to Section 15 of the Child Act 2001, she said the law was designed to protect the identities and privacy of children involved in legal proceedings.
The three boys were jointly charged with threatening to harm the elderly woman using several objects, including a mop, an iron rod, a fluorescent light tube and stones.
Hartini said the state's response to the case should raise serious concerns among child protection advocates, particularly when children are involved in criminal proceedings.
BOB Post
