KOTA KINABALU: Warisan Kota Kinabalu Wirawati division chief, Vivian Thien has condemned the alleged sexual harassment against a female teenager on Facebook last week.
The sexually derogatory slurs by a “Danny Ooi” Facebook account has since courted criticism from netizens and a police report has been filed by the victim.
“It is 2020, yet many still view sexual harassments lightly. Action must be taken by the police as the victim, as I was made to understand, has made police report,” Vivian said in a statement issued here yesterday.
Vivian, who is also the national vice chief of Wirawati Warisan, stressed that sexual harassment cannot be tolerated as it goes against all government efforts to empower women.
“Sexual harassment is unacceptable in this Sabah Baru era and it goes against every effort made by the Sabah Government to empower women.”
“After May 2018, a lot has been done to acknowledge the contribution of women and continue empowering women.”
“For example, after 24 years, Sabah finally has her second woman Deputy Chief Minister when Datuk Christina Liew was appointed in 2018.“
“Sabah has also many senior civil servants who are women, like Attorney General Datuk Zaleha Rose and her deputy Datuk Nor Asiah.”
“Four Ministries have permanent secretaries who are women, the highest ranked civil service position in a ministry. They are Masnah Matsalleh (Local Government and Housing), Dr Mariana Tinggal (Agriculture and Food Industry), Jasmine Teo (Education and Innovation) and Datuk Janet Chee (Health and People’s Wellbeing).”
“We also have Gwendolen Vu, a woman who is head of Sabah’s Economic Planning Unit.”
“In fact, Sabah surpassed the national target of having 30 per cent women in leadership roles when it appointed women to 40 per cent of senior government posts,” Vivian added.
She said that enforcement authorities must play a role to continue the efforts of the Sabah Government.
“I want to see action to be taken by law enforcers immediately,” she concluded.
