Clearing th he air
MaGIC CEO Cheryl Yeoh explains why she highlightied an alleged sexual harassment onlyo recently.
PETALING JAYA: Tech entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh (pic) will not be pressing charges against a prominent American venture capitalist whom she claimed had tried to force himself on her three years ago.
She also said the main reason she was bringing up the issue now was because she wanted to create greater awareness of sexual harassment and abuse of power.
“I will not be lodging a report because I don’t think there’s a point. I am not a litigious person and my intention with telling my account wasn’t to sue him, whether in Malaysia or the United States.
“It was to bring to light how sexual harassment and the abuse of power happens. It happens everywhere, whether in the US or Asia, and it also happens to women regardless of their positions,” she told The Star via e-mail.
In a blog post on July 3, Yeoh alleged that Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups co-founder and CEO Dave McClure tried to force himself on her after a night of brainstorming at her apartment in Malaysia. He had refused to leave when the meeting ended.
Yeoh is the founding CEO of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), which comes under the Finance Ministry. Officially launched in April 2014 to boost the Malaysian technology startup ecosystem, Yeoh was the CEO from then until January 2016.
“If you put yourself in my shoes at the time – as the new CEO of MaGIC and two months into the job – I wasn’t in the right position to deal with the consequences of reporting, especially when the environment isn’t supportive of it.
“It would have made no difference if I were in the United States.
“My purpose for exposing Dave was not to get retribution for myself but for other women who had suffered worse and can’t speak out about it yet.
“I want to bring more awareness that these things happen more often than people think,” she added.
Yeoh’s blog post came in the wake of a New York Times article on sexual harassment in Silicon Valley.
In June, Binary Capital partner Justin Caldbeck apologised and quit after several women based in Silicon Valley came forward, accusing him of sexual harassment.
The New York Times said it spoke to more than two dozen female entrepreneurs who had described unwanted advances, touching and sexist comments by investors, and named McClure as one such investor.
McClure has since resigned from 500 Startups after apologising in a blog post I’m a Creep. I’m Sorry.
That blog post was in fact one reason why Yeoh decided to give an account of her own experience.
“When Dave McClure published his public apology, I wasn’t happy that he downplayed his misdemeanour to making ‘inappropriate comments’.
“He was still trying to rationalise and justify his actions, which didn’t sound like he was remorseful for what he did, and the public was condoning his actions because they didn’t know the truth,” she said.
Yeoh said people needed to understand that women did not speak up on sexual harassment because there was a culture of victim-blaming, and the Internet was “especially harsh to women because of gender biases”.
“Not everyone is able or willing to put themselves under public scrutiny for a topic that is so emotional and personal.”