SINGAPORE — In a lengthy statement on Instagram captioned “Closure”, National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate Monica Baey addressed the criticisms that she has received since going viral, called on trolls to stop harassing the peeping tom who filmed her and encouraged other victims of sexual crimes to speak up.

Ms Baey, 23, has been a national talking point since a week and a half ago, when a series of Instagram stories she posted went viral.

In them, she expressed her anger at the light punishment that had been meted out to a fellow student who had filmed her while she was showering at Eusoff Hall in NUS last November.

As the posts gained steam, her story was picked up by the media and sparked a public outcry.

In quick succession, NUS convened a review committee to relook its disciplinary and support frameworks and held a town hall for students, while Education Minister Ong Ye Kung criticised the penalties against the voyeur as being “manifestly inadequate”.

Other local universities also said they were stepping up safety and security measures on campus.

“This week has been incredibly tiring, yet probably the most fulfilling week of my life,” Ms Baey began her note.

“I can’t believe it. Change has finally come.”

“I DO NOT OWE IT TO HIM TO KEEP HIS NAME PRIVATE”

Ms Baey wrote that while she has received a lot of supportive messages, she has also come across those who disagreed with what she did, and how she did it.

“I find that fair, because everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” she wrote.

Some of these critics, she said, are calling the voyeur who filmed her, Nicholas Lim, a victim himself, as he has faced harassment from the public since her posts went viral.

“All I will say in response to that is that I do genuinely hope he is receiving the proper support he needs to rehabilitate, and that the unnecessary online harassment towards him and his loved ones will stop,” Ms Baey said.

But she added: “I will stand by the fact that I do not owe it to him to keep his name private.”

She cited an earlier case, also at Eusoff Hall, in which an NUS undergraduate was caught filming a fellow student. He was temporarily suspended but later returned to the university and then molested a female undergraduate.

“Barely anyone outside Eusoff Hall knew his name, or that he was back on campus,” she said. “How many more names of perpetrators do we protect because of their family, future, their sob stories?”

In bold, she wrote: “I want my perpetrator to never hurt another person the way he hurt me. I want him to get better. I want  him to realise what he did was wrong through his punishment (that he is serving now), and realise how badly you can mess a person up just by filming them without their consent through rehabilitation and education.”

She added: “And I want potential perpetrators who are thinking about doing what he did to me to stop in their tracks and get help.”

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Ms Baey has previously said that she hopes for her case to be re-opened. She said in her latest post that this has yet to be decided, and that she has not put pressure on NUS to re-open it.

“Whether this case will be re-opened in NUS will be left up to the Review Committee, should they find a justifiable reason to. I am not part of this decision.”

She added that neither petitions nor online opinions should decide Lim’s punishment. Thousands of people have signed two petitions on Change.org that are related to the case. One calls for stiffer punishment for Lim, while the other is asking the police to reopen the case.

“I think it is time to step away from the discussion of what people think should be done to him, and step into the discussion of how can we improve our current society,” Ms Baey said.

“DON’T STAY SILENT”

The communications undergraduate also encouraged anyone who has ever been a victim of sexual harassment to speak up about it, as it can bring about change.

She said that there were too many victims of voyeurism who were afraid of speaking up and getting help because they are afraid that no one will believe them, or that people will downplay their trauma by saying that such offences are not serious.

“No, it is serious,” she stressed. “The paranoia never goes away.”

Since Lim filmed her showering, she said, she has never felt safe and is constantly worried there might be a camera somewhere, capturing her image.

“I get so frustrated that I break down in the shower sometimes because I’m so tired of worrying.”

Even though she was never touched, Ms Baey said that she still felt violated.

“The feeling of disgust still sits inside of me. Disgust that he went looking for his victim, and committed that act so careless, selfishly, not thinking about how it would impact me for the rest of my life.”

She added that since speaking up, a “huge number” of sexual offence victims have told her that they will report their own cases to the authorities.

To them, and others who are still silent, she said: “Don’t worry too much about what other people think… now is the time to speak up and be bold.”

“THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING”

Ending her post on a more optimistic note, Ms Baey said she hopes that the national discussion she has sparked, about how to prevent and punish sexual assault, will continue.

“I hope that Singapore has reflected on what happened, why this blew up as big as it did, and learn to not avoid issues but rather face the hard reality — sexual misconduct and assault is much more prevalent than it appears to be.”

She added: “I am going to keep doing what I believe is right — continue to fight for changes in my university, continue to be the voice for all the victims who are quietly supporting me in my DMs, emails, texts, continue to push Singapore to talk about these issues that nobody wants to talk about.”

“And this is only the beginning,” she said, adding that “so much more” can be done to improve the justice system, protect victims and deter perpetrators.

“But for now, I’m taking it one step at a time.”