THE country’s first public caning in Terengganu last month of a 42-year-old man for the offence of khalwat (being alone with a woman in a morally impermissible situation) created much interest.
Among those who witnessed the caning were representatives from the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam). A week before the caning, Suhakam had issued a statement opposing the punishment, on grounds that inflicting physical violence and causing humiliation, anguish and shame have no place in a modern justice system.
Six strokes were administered with a thin cane to the waist and above.
The Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association argued that the caning method is humane and justifiable as it is part of a valid legal system in the context of Syariah Law.
How should you weigh these two contrasting arguments? To form a balanced opinion, it is vital to view the caning as comprising two segments: (1) the shame inflicted; and (2) social impact of the offence.
Without understanding the social impact, it is not possible to gauge whether a guilty person deserves to be shamed and whether there are offences wherein public caning should be administered.
In regard to social impact, it is interesting that the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism stated the following in a letter published in theSun four days before the caning: “Offenders of khalwat are not criminals as their personal behaviour and transgressions pose no threat to life, property or the peace and security of the country.”
How do we understand social impact? Knowledge of the broad sweep of world history is necessary. In the 300,000 years of human existence, there has so far been only two epochal landmarks. The first is the invention of agriculture (crop farming 12,000 years ago and animal herding 10,000 years ago); the second is the industrial revolution 250 years ago. A possible third epochal landmark is developing, and that is human-induced global climate change. These two revolutions should be termed epochal landmarks because they changed the structure of human societies across the globe.
Agriculture made family bonding crucial for the survival of populations as farms were owned by families and labour was provided mainly by family members and relatives. The economies of nations remained agriculture-dependent until the industrial revolution.
Illicit relations, especially gay sex by men and casual sexual activity by women, destroyed family trust and spread disease through food shared at the table. Disruption of family bonding jolted the economy and at worst could ruin it to the extent that the nation is wrecked. Hence, the severest punishment was inflicted.
For example, Jewish society imposed death by public stoning, as prescribed in the scripture of Deuteronomy (Chapter 22) written 3,500 years ago.
It is obvious from the text of Deuteronomy that ancient civilised societies valued women as household goods only and confined their roles to the kitchen, baby hatch and farm. If a rapist violated a married woman or a woman pledged to be married, two families would be shattered, their farms neglected and the economy would suffer. Hence, the rapist is sentenced to death.
However, leniency is shown towards a man who rapes a virgin girl who is not pledged to be married. The rapist only has to pay the girl’s father a sum of money and he must marry the girl because as a piece of spoilt goods she has no chance of finding a husband (Deuteronomy Ch 22:28-29).
During the medieval period, national economies around the world had become less dependent on family-based agriculture as cottage industries were producing a wider range of products, commerce was bustling and regional trade links were developing. Hence, punishments for illicit sexual relations were reduced to flogging.
The industrial revolution was the next epochal landmark as it took humanity into another epoch. Beginning in 1760, this second revolutionary change in human existence created globally linked national economies reliant on commercial-scale agriculture, mass produced factory goods, extensive commerce and international trading.
Sexual offences lost the power to wreck nations as finance had come to replace the family as the anchor of societies. We see evidence of this switch in America, which has for a long stretch of 50 years been known as the nation of debauchery, free sex and homosexualism. But the US economy remains the world’s strongest, and America’s military force is globally dominant.
Why is Malaysia at far greater risk of destruction by financial crime than sexual sin? Although sexual sin continues to harm families, the continued topmost priority given to it by religion has reduced governmental and public attention towards corruption.
This has enabled corruption to saturate the entire structure of our society and damage most of our public institutions, with the life-sapping consequence of a ceaseless draining away of public funds.
A heart-stopping RM277 billion has been lost to corruption over the last five years, as revealed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. The amount, larger than the development expenditure under Budget 2024, can build 295 public hospitals.
Worse still: corruption kills. Bribery that permits unsafe heavy lorries to be on the roads has caused the deaths of many innocent crash victims in recent months.
A further insidious consequence is that corruption has spawned another equally life-sapping financial crime – the scam.
Malaysia’s thriving scam industry began in the 1980s when a local syndicate offered gold as an investment, with a promise of 100% yield within a year. After the initial waves allowing several gold investors to make money, a final wave harvested a vault-full of victims. The syndicate suddenly vanished overseas, with a heavy loot in the bag.
Today’s scammers are far more sophisticated. The indifference of public service network operators has made it so easy: employees with access to your mobile number get paid selling personal databases, and eventually you get a call.
As all transactions are done online, the name of every product line in the marketplace can be used as an investment scam tool – commodities, jewellery, fast-moving consumer goods, currencies and syndicate-created investment products. Hop on board now and make your million before others do.
Last year, a fire and rescue department’s name was used to dupe food and hardwire supply providers with fake contracts for which they must pay upfront commissions.
Terror of all scams
But the terror of all scams is the “jail” scam. The authorities never use this term but it is high time to call a spade a spade so that you recognise it as a scam the moment you hear the word “jail” uttered by the caller.
Victims of the jail scam have been known to fall into depression, and some may even have committed suicide. It is thus a crime with murderous consequences.
The jail scammer’s trick is to lure you into believing that your name has been linked to a criminal activity, and that a police inspector is on his way to arrest you and detain you in jail for investigation.
A “kind sergeant” then assures you that he will get you off the hook. All you need do is remit huge sums of money in tranches, usually via ATM, over a period of days or weeks to some bank accounts. A district police station hotline number was even used to execute a jail scam.
As in investment scams, jail scammers rely on the same extensive networks of supporters spread throughout all levels of Malaysian society, and they thrive on the widespread of social indifference: telco companies that make no effort to detect scam calls, banks that fail to check whether customers have sold or leased their bank accounts to scammers and scam payments that keep going through when they can be stopped if banks engage artificial intelligence detectives.
Corruption and scams – not sexual sin – will lead to the eventual collapse of Malaysian society because they destroy one of society’s most vital ingredients. That fundamental ingredient and the basis of our financial system is trust.
When everyone is either a scammer, embezzler, supporter or facilitator of any of these two financial crimes or is a victim, whether personally or as a taxpayer or knows someone who has fallen victim, all trust is gone. The financial system will eventually collapse, bringing ruin to our society.
Why has corruption grown to such magnitude? It is because Malaysia has gotten soft on financial cheats with humane treatment taking priority over punishment.
Prison sentence fails as a deterrent because embezzlers and scammers have factored in this risk. But what terrifies them is the shame of caning and having to undertake dirty and dangerous work.
The Dewan Rakyat must pass laws mandating six strokes of the cane to be followed by arduous community service throughout the prison term.
Embezzlers and scammers must be compelled to perform such dirty and dangerous tasks as building embankments to prevent river water from overflowing, sweeping away flood waters from inundated public buildings, repairing potholes and sinkholes in roads, clearing large monsoon drains of rubbish, eliminating dengue breeding spots in notorious areas, removing debris from accident sites and washing public toilets.
Give embezzlers and scammers a tough rehabilitative education or they will continue laughing their way to the bank at our humane softness.
Most importantly, only corporal punishment will deter the criminal-minded from pursuing careers as embezzlers and scammers.
Joachim Ng champions
interfaith harmony.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
