Credits to Daryln @chokoilatte

    Following the recently huge movement towards the fight to file the Sexual Harassment Bill by All Women’s Action Society (AWAM), many Instagram pages and organisations are gaining lots of attention in support for this bill. One of these pages is @bukansalahkamek, a campaign originating in Kuching, Sarawak and founded by Kimberley Tan. 

    Kimberley Tan, known as Kim to many, is a committee member of Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) and spent four months preparing the proposal to launch the campaign. @bukansalahkamek started out in 2019 as a “Stop Sexual Violence Campaign” by SWWS. The user handle translates to “it’s not my fault”. During the pandemic and with physical gatherings put on hold, they brought their campaign online and launched their Instagram page in March 2020 with a committee of 10 active volunteers currently running the page. I had the opportunity to interview the founder of @bukansalahkamek, Kim. 

    What initiated this campaign came from her personal experience. There are many instances where she would witness her friends getting harassed and standing up for them was deemed unacceptable or unladylike. The culture of victim-blaming didn’t sit well with her and the lack of awareness regarding sexual violence and scarcity of support for survivors in Kuching bothered her. This is what pushed her to launch the campaign, the need to start a conversation surrounding the topic. She also knew the page requires to tackle different languages for better outreach. 

    Her objectives and mission for this page and campaign is to build a community in Sarawak so that survivors do not feel alone, a platform where they can be heard and believed with people that they can open up to. They also aim to raise awareness, to break the stigma and sustain the conversation surrounding the issue. She sees that there are knowledge gaps because of the taboo surrounding sexual violence and society’s current language adapting of rape culture, myths and facts need to be allowed to help people. The other issue is to address how survivors can be deemed as second-hand goods which is unfair. 

    When she first started the campaign, her peers were concerned about how the campaign would impact her, regarding “what she could be labelled as” or any issues that may come up with her starting the page. However, that did not bother her, nor did she feel that it was challenging due to how vocal she was about the issue on her social media platforms. These doubts and worries simply just “ignited her fire” to start the campaign. 

    Throughout the journey, Kim believes that it has overall been quite smooth and successful. A few obstacles they faced were the lack of funds and shortage in manpower, as everyone who chooses to take part is a volunteer. Certainly, there may be some negative feedback from the public as well. These negative responses pose a challenge that is well accepted by the team because it is a step towards creating conversations regarding the issue. In order to educate rather than ‘cancelling’ differences, the team learns to understand the root of the problem stemming from how each individual is raised, nurtured by their environment and the prevalence of patriarchy in our systems, which is why this conversation is a step towards re-educating the community and raising awareness. 

    I asked Kim what surprised her throughout this journey. She answered that what stood out for her is the strength of survivors, those who are able to speak up, to choose a path to share their stories to support other survivors as well as continue practising kindness within their community. Through this, they can build a community and strong presence in Kuching. 

    The team has had a series of achievements especially during their four-month long campaign last year in 2019. They had events such as short film screenings, outreach programmes in rural areas, on child safety awareness with teachers and students. A notable event was an exhibition that was held for 9 days in Old Courthouse, Kuching. During this exhibition, they had installations of clothes from survivors in which different items had a different story, displays of how different survivors depict their trauma through poetry, art and music, and even a pledge wall where people supported the urgency of the Sexual Harassment Bill. 

When the team was asked regarding their proudest achievements, these were some of their responses: 

“There was a sense of together-ness within the community, people coming together and that was nice.” – Kim Tan 

“My proudest accomplishment would be getting into the news. The Borneo Post, Aug 4, 2020. I kept the newspaper clipping in a file neatly as a memory.” – Hanisah Hosain 

“I'm proud of how we manage to work together and produce educational content despite our busy schedule, I love the respect we have for each other's time and space.” – Priscilla Grace Poul 

“To be able to be part of something impactful and contribute even a small part is one my proudest achievements in the BSK campaign - through the exhibitions as well and thank you to everyone who’s been supporting the campaign as well.” – Anonymous 

“I felt the proudest when people started to recognise the importance of the campaign. It means we really need some change here.” – Anonymous 

    To conclude the interview, I inquired what were Kim’s thoughts on the Sexual Harassment Bill and if she has anything she would like to say to the supporters of the page. Kim is absolutely thrilled about the extent of the current fight to table the Bill this upcoming November because the newly proposed Bill is more inclusive and clearly defined. In the past, perpetrators have been let go due to the negligence of our current legal system which is why the bill is very important. She would like to say thank you to the volunteers who come to work for the page, as most of them have been sticking around for over a year and she is extremely grateful for that. 

Sexual harassment can occur in all situations, whether it is at your workplace, school or even in public. Despite that, Malaysia does not have a specific law that targets sexual harassment which often leads to reports of sexual harassment not being taken seriously or completely disregarded. The Sexual Harassment Bill has been in the works for the past 20 years and aims to protect all survivors regardless of gender, race and background. Let’s step up and use our voice to ensure that this bill gets tabled at the parliament this November! The petition can be found here. AWAM currently has garnered over 16,000 e-signatures, BUT the traditional Paper Petition is what gets this cause heard in Parliament. YOUR help is needed to amplify the Rakyat’s call for our MPs to address sexual harassment head-on‼️ Follow these steps to sign the paper petition: 

1. Get in touch with AWAM via Instagram @awammalaysia or call them at 0378774221 to get your copy of the petition. 

2. Sign the Petition. Remember to include your IC number, address and full name 📝 

3. Send the petition back to AWAM! You have 2 options for this depending on where you stay📬📫 

*The paper petition is open to Malaysians ONLY. But remember, the Sexual Harassment Act is for everyone! 

*The 2nd image ‘How to send it back’ has a mistake. Petitions sent via PosLaju must be mailed before 16th November). 

You can also donate to AWAM’s Sexual Harassment Awareness, Redress & Prevention (SHARP) Program that will enable them to provide trainings for free to the people who can’t afford them (ex. Orang Asli estate workers, students in smaller schools, non-English speaking communities, etc.) but need them the most. 

If you or someone you know is having a hard time or have experienced any form of gender-based violence, do reach out to AWAM’s Helpline, Telenita at 0162374221, WAO’s 24/7 Hotline at 0379563488 or WhatsApp Tina at 0189888058.