A recent social media post in November 2025, which is freely accessible to the public, by an individual who identified herself as Loh Wai Mun claiming she was raped has gone viral.
In her post, she claimed that despite her filing a police report, got examined medically and the assailant arrested and charged initially under Section 376 of the Penal Code, understandably a a non-bailable offence - Petaling Jaya Session Court Criminal Suit No. BB-62JS-3-06/2025 – for which the assailant pleaded not guilty, she was shocked to find out later that the Deputy Public Prosecutor, after reviewing a representation from the lawyer for the assailant, agreed to reclassified the case from Section 376 to Section 354 of the Penal Code, which pertains to assault or the use of criminal force with the intent to outrage the modesty of a person with the assailant pleading guilty to this lesser charge and was fined RM 10,000.
The victim, in her post, claimed that the authorities did not review nor asked for her to submit evidence she has, which to her belief, are crucial to her case.
Many who read this post shared it online with their respective comments.
Many of the comments on the victim’s post raised serious questions on the AG’s decision and why the Deputy Public Prosecutor agreed to revise the original charge to a lesser charge against the assailant, asking for reasons and accountability for the reasons the AG’s Chambers made and to what extent is the discretion of the AG in agreeing to amend the initial charge under Sect 376 of the Penal Code to Section 354 of the Penal Code which carries a lesser penalty and whether the authorities have done a serious investigation into the reports filed by the victim with the police.
Since the post went viral, it has raised a serious safety concern amongst the public at large not only within the vicinity where the alleged rape happened or where the victim and assailant resided.
The public apparently went into overdrive and shared that post warning others of the assailant.
A lot of the comments voiced concerns and feared for their personal safety.
It is a known fact that rape victims in Malaysia often do not reveal themselves publicly due to various socio-cultural and psychological factors.
There is always a tendency by the media and the general public of sensationalising the event with some taking sides in defence of the perpetrator as if the victim is to be blamed for having been there.
Being punished for doing so and subjecting themselves to negative reactions are other potential reasons why victims did not disclose their ordeal publicly.
In fact, victims speaking out and identifying their perpetrators is considered rare in this country.
Thus, the victim in this case, Loh Wai Mun has shown exceptional courage in coming out openly and publicly seeking justice against her perpetrator whom she obviously believes was let off for his heinous act.
Setting aside the law which sometimes may be an ass, questions were also asked as to would you have agreed to a lesser charge proffered against the assailant if the victim is someone you know and holds on to dearly?
Let this not be a precedent that will embolden all those future rapists from thinking and believing that their heinous acts could be negotiated even within the confines of the prevailing law.
Probably a large section of the female readers that have been following this news that went viral is also looking for development on this case from the AG’s Chambers.
All of them are probably looking at whether the law is there for cosmetic reasons or it was drafted and legislated with the primary objective of defending the victims and not the perpetrators.
As laid down by the former Chief Justice Tengku Maimun, even though the AG has discretionary powers, it is not unlimited.
The discretion cannot be exercised for an improper purpose and unreasonably or based on an irrelevant or wrong consideration.
In arriving at the earlier decision to charge the assailant under a lesser charge, the AG is obviously guided by legal principles.
It is the hope of the public that public interest was also the paramount consideration for the AG when he was making the earlier decision.
FLK (leekhean.foo@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.