The Malaysian Insight

DEPUTY Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said she could not understand why her critics were attacking her over the government’s handling of the 11-year-old child bride case.

“I don’t know. I tried my level best. If others want to attack me, at least in my heart and conscience, I tried my level best,” she said during a radio interview with BFM this morning.

Rights groups had criticised Dr Wan Azizah, who is also women, family and community development minister, and her ministry over the lack of legal action against the 41-year-old Kelantanese rubber trader who had taken the Thai child as his third wife in Thailand in June.

Human rights activists were particularly outraged that the man, whose first and second wives had threatened divorce over the child marriage, reportedly started targeting the child since she was 7.

On whether the issue of child marriage was muddied by the issue of paedophile, Dr Wan Azizah said yes. Sexual grooming of children was criminalised in Malaysia last year.

“We do have some laws against sexual grooming. That’s the thing. There’s a grey area.

“For me, it’s clear. If I had my way, it’s easier,” she said.

Based on media reports from Thailand, the 11-year-old child bride and her parents have since returned to Thailand and were being cared for by a psychologist, social worker and medical doctor. The Narathiwat religious council in Southern Thailand said the marriage ceremony was conducted by an imam in Sungai Golok without the council’s permission. – August 30, 2018.