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How Vase.ai Helped WAO Criminalising Stalking in Malaysia 

Vase.ai supports the Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) in its mission to make stalking a punishable crime in Malaysia through a stronger proposal by providing the missing puzzle piece: real perspectives, real experiences and real insights – beyond data and numbers.
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Project Brief

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) critically needed comprehensive population-based insights such as these to draw a stronger, more convincing proposal to enact an anti-stalking law.

About The Company

 

Women’s Aid Organisation is a Malaysian NGO that seeks to end violence against women and promote gender equality in Malaysia.  In doing so, it undertakes research into any factors that contribute to the inequality and subordination of women (and men alike). Through this, it works with government agencies and political figures to improve and enforce laws and policies.

Stalking IS NOT okay

 

Did you know that stalking —including acts of harassment that do not necessarily involve physical aggression — is not a crime yet in Malaysia? 

As a matter of fact. 21% of Malaysians do not think stalking is wrong. Yet 59% who have experienced stalking acts felt fearful when those acts happened to them. 

Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) critically needed comprehensive population-based insights such as these to draw a stronger, more convincing proposal to enact an anti-stalking law. 

And it needed these insights quickly because political turbulence in Malaysia at the time had begun stalling its efforts.

Read on to find out how collaborative social research between WAO and Vase.ai resulted in much-needed momentous changes in Malaysia.

The challenge

 

Data scarcity - Though WAO had started campaigning about the cause and implemented strategies to circulate discourses, its pursuit of law reform was missing critical data: the public’s general perception and lived experiences of stalking. WAO knew that a primary research method such as a survey was the way to move forward, but was concerned with research transparency. 


Research transparency - WAO wanted to be involved in the research rather than being left in the dark — a typical pay-and-wait type of research —  during the process.  

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“We were lucky to have worked with Vase.ai on a previous research and knew that it was wise to continue that relationship.”

Yu Ren Chung

- Deputy Executive Director of Women's Aid Organisation

The Solution

 

WAO worked with Vase.ai to develop and launch a 22-question survey to more than 1000 Malaysians to find out their understanding and perceptions of stalking and stalking-related behaviours.  

The study sought to identify common relationships between victims and alleged perpetrators, as well as to unearth reasons these cases often go unreported. 

Collaborative expertise

Vase.ai’s research solutions include consultation with research experts who not only review survey drafts but also survey results. All of this and more to ensure the highest standards of data quality.

The icing on the cake for WAO was that teams at Vase.ai were as passionate as WAO to drive impact in causes such as women’s rights.

And unlike traditional research providers, Vase.ai enabled all data collected from this study accessible to the public to help raise awareness of stalking in Malaysia; something that was severely lacking.

Intelligent platform

Powered by artificial intelligence and highly intuitive,  Vase.ai’s  research, Every, integrates research processes: from developing to launching surveys and analysing results.

The platform provided WAO with suggested insights on critical data points which allowed both WAO and Vase.ai to dig deeper into certain insights. 

This accelerated WAO’s efforts to quickly beef up its proposal for anti-stalking regulations.

Accurate, reliable insights

Vase.ai provided a missing piece in WAO’s initial proposal: nuanced, local perspectives on the topic of stalking.

Beyond eliciting insights from our proprietary panel of verified respondents in Malaysia, Vase.ai also ensured data accuracy by performing data cleaning.  This means, removing low-quality responses such as speeder, one-liner and logic-failed responses. 

The result? 100% actionable, reliable, and accurate insights for WAO to confidently present its case to decision makers. 

The Impacts

 

Eye-opening insights

WAO had been relying on secondary data before working with Vase.ai to understand Malaysians’ experiences in stalking first hand. 

The most compelling insight of all was probably that of how Malaysians have generally experienced acts of stalking but they are unable to categorise those as such. 

Additionally, the study revealed that stalking happens to both men and women, causing them to feel fearful and posing risks to their safety. 

Stronger campaign

Until today, both WAO and Vase.ai are using these insights to raise awareness of stalking and why Malaysia must amend its laws to better protect its citizens.  

WAO has run numerous nonprofit awareness campaigns using insights gained from this collaboration. Such campaigns included working with influential Malaysian personalities and making TV appearances to amplify the discourse.

Law reform

On October 3, 2022, Dewan Rakyat unanimously approved the anti-stalking bill, validating WAO’s blood, sweat and tears of advocacy since 2013. 

Though having played a small role, Vase.ai is ecstatic to contribute to this fight and proud to be a part of this historical event.

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“While I do have a background in social science, I’m not a data expert. So, it was great to have Vase.ai’s researchers share their feedback on analyses I had done to ensure accurate representations.”

Yu Ren Chung

- Deputy Executive Director of Women's Aid Organisation

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