The Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISBH) child abuse scandal, which involved the extensive physical and sexual abuse of hundreds of children, appears to have reached the end of its media cycle.
We appear to have turned a page and moved on with limited punishment meted out to the GISBH leadership responsible for the abuse, and no apparent accountability from the government agencies that failed these children.
We do not seem to have learnt from the nightmare or had a wake-up call to revamp our child protection services. It appears we are waiting for the next horror to surface before we have another knee-jerk response.
Much has been written by many of us about our concerns regarding our weak child protection services, but we see little change. Strong calls by the Children’s Commissioner, SUHAKAM, and more than 50 civil society organisations for a Royal Commission of Inquiry have gone unheeded by the government.
Our government agencies responsible for the protection of children appear unable to learn from failure. All we are left with is a Wikipedia page to chronicle this blight on our child protection services.
If we do not learn from our failures, we are doomed to repeat them, but the cost is unmeasurable for the children that suffer due to the failure of our child protection services.
While we still hope that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) will continue to prosecute the GISBH leadership who were involved in the abuse of many children, this article is to highlight what a professional and competent child protection service should and would have done when the GISBH abuse was uncovered.
Act Immediately Regardless Of The Context
A competent child protection service would have acted immediately to investigate and protect children. Police trained in child protection, aided by trained social workers, would have launched an investigation into any possible child abuse the moment the first report was made.
Instead, what we saw was 41 police reports lodged against GISBH from 2011 to 2024 but not acted upon. We have no information on the Welfare Department’s involvement during those critical years, but during the course of working with them, we have often noticed a reluctance to monitor and enforce child protection policies in religious institutions.
The Child Act is clear – it covers all children, and the Welfare Department are the designated protectors of all children in the country.
Investigate The Past
A competent child protection service would not just rescue children currently in welfare homes but also investigate all those that were living there in the past.
While we have rescued 560 to 625 children (numbers vary according to different reports), what about the possibly thousands of children who have been severely traumatised over decades in these homes.
A competent and adequately resourced child protection service would make attempts to identify children who have previously been in their facilities and offer them the support they need.
We are not aware of any attempt that has been made by the Welfare Department to do so, although a few survivors of abuse have come forward.
We are concerned with the well-being of these children, and now possibly some adults, with their life trajectories carrying the pain and trauma of unresolved memories of abuse.
Reliable And Fit Placement With Ongoing Monitoring
Managing more than 500 child abuse victims is a daunting task for any social service. it is not easy to absorb them into existing children’s homes run by the government.
Hence there is a need to place as many back with their own parents. A competent child protection service would do a detailed evaluation and ensure that the parents are fit persons before reuniting them with their children.
We must remember it was these very same parents who originally placed their children fully in the care of the GISBH welfare homes. We have to ask if they were aware of the abuse.
Currently the majority of children have been placed back with their families, we hope, after a meaningful evaluation. We are unaware if there is any follow-up monitoring of these children and families to ensure their safety.
Taking Responsibility For Failure And Transparent Accountability
A competent child protection service would take responsibility for failure and be accountable. We can see, from the recent death of an abused child in Singapore, how an independent panel was formed to evaluate the government agencies involved.
Both the Minister of Social and Family Development and the Minister in charge of Social Services Integration made public apologies with new measures to improve safeguards in the child protection ecosystem.
In the GISBH situation, the impact of a competent child protection service taking action in 2011 cannot be adequately fathomed. We can only imagine how many hundreds of children would have been spared the abuse.
Hence, we have to ask, what action has been taken against the authorities that have failed all these children and many more? With the lack of transparency, an independent evaluation, or a Royal Commission of Inquiry, no responsibility has been taken for failure, and no change in the system is apparent.
There is a dire need for a nationwide, competent child protection service – both within the police and Welfare Department. We need all child protectors in the Welfare Department to be professionally trained social workers fully aware of child protection regulations and their responsibilities and powers.
This will require the passage and implementation of a good Social Work Profession Bill; a dramatic upscaling of social worker training and more posts for such professionals and others, to provide the in-depth, personalised service the traumatised children need.
We will continue to fail children, again and again, unless we fix our child protection services and adopt a more holistic approach in addressing the challenges. We must restore public confidence in our child protection agencies.
The legal framework to monitor residential care and respond to child abuse, wherever it occurs, does exist, but what is lacking is the investment in providing a strong, professional, well-coordinated, and resourced child care protection system operating effectively at all levels.
We need the legacy of GISBH to be a child protection system worthy of a nation as developed as Malaysia.
Dr Amar-Singh HSS is a consultant paediatrician and child disability activist.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
