Sex, offensive

Sex, offensive
March 23, 2011MARCH 23 — There is a video somewhere. Not many have seen it, but it seemingly exists. In the video, a man alleged to be a senior Malay politician from the opposition was filmed having sex with a woman, supposedly a prostitute.

That man is supposedly Anwar Ibrahim. The same Anwar Ibrahim who, lest we forget, is already in a trial for allegedly penetrating another man’s rectum six times. Or maybe more, maybe less.

This video is claimed to be in the possession of a man who prefers to only be known as Datuk T.

The video was taken from the output of four different cameras, most likely well-hidden in a hotel room. From what has been reported, it is safe to assume that the man in the video did not know he was being filmed.

The same cannot be said of the woman, since she apparently stole an Omega watch belonging to the man who she had just had sex with, and the very same watch was then displayed by Datuk T to his audience.

Ah yes, his audience.

He made a press conference to announce this, in fact. To announce that he has this video, and that he would send it to the politician in a week, after which he expects the politician and his wife to resign. One assumes the resignations are for all political posts that they hold. Or to just be resigned.

This Datuk T… is a nasty, nasty piece of work.

Now, in a reasonable world, Datuk T should already be in the slammer, or at the very least brought in for questioning. Regardless of whether the man in the video is Anwar Ibrahim, or some pot-bellied simile of him, Datuk T has confessed to being in possession of something that is in gross violation of a person’s privacy.

Irrespective of whether the intercourse was sinful or otherwise, the persons involved in recording the act should be considered, in a reasonable world, as the ones who are wronged first and foremost.

That is where the investigation should start. That is where the condemnation should begin from.

In a reasonable world, we shouldn’t have to check the hotel room we’re in for hidden cameras. There is already one hotel in Batu Pahat that we know we shouldn’t be going to. Now, there’s apparently another in a location as yet unspecified.

But it seems that we don’t live in a reasonable world. Or rather, not in a reasonable country. Because at the moment, Datuk T is still out and about. He’s also called for an “independent public commission” comprising of NGOs and members of the media, to do forensics on the video. This is to ostensibly to verify the authenticity and provenance of it.

Which particular NGOs were not mentioned, though one can assume it wouldn’t be the likes of Sisters In Islam, or the World Wildlife Fund.

Meanwhile, the authorities are not exactly doing anything to Datuk T. Not yet, anyway, though one hopes that they will soon.

Apparently, there will be a special police unit to investigate the claims made in a police report by Anwar, under section 292 of the Penal Code for possession and distribution of pornographic material.

But it’s not porn. It’s just someone who was engaged in a sexual activity with another person and didn’t know he was being filmed.

No, we don’t live in a reasonable country.

And that Datuk T… a nasty, nasty piece of work.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.