Interest in Sex Scandals is Good

By batsman 

I must disagree with RPK’s article About Sex and Bribery. The MACC and police already have a bad record of custodial deaths. If in case they are a murderous bunch, can they be trusted to investigate corruption, since they may already be guilty of the worst abuse of power possible? I thought the idea of reforms in Malaysia was to reduce all cases of abuse of power? I believe custodial deaths must have priority over bribery and corruption in the investigations and the investigations must have assurance they are done professionally and with full integrity.

It is the same with the Malaysian public’s apparent obsessive interest in sex scandals. Interest in sex scandals is good provided it is not manipulated and not a distraction from other ongoing important criminal cases. 

Sex scandals after all is the old way of people exercising control over their leaders. You could argue that a leader’s sex life has no bearing over his performance in good governance. This is a very presumptive argument and it presumes the importance of money over morals. As long as your money is safe, a leader’s sexploits are tolerated with one eye closed. 

To me this is a classic modern capitalist argument. It was used successfully in Bill Clinton’s case and it showed that Americans placed priority of money over morals in their governance. Subsequently George Bush made use of the same mindset to invade Iraq, and true to form, Americans placed US monetary interests over the immorality of launching an invasion of a sovereign country. There is no end to evil once morality has been compromised in favour of self-interest, power, money or even a false or hypocritical sense of morality. 

Using such rationale, one could also argue that as long as Malays are concerned, a leader’s tendency to engage in corruption has no bearing over the his protection and good will towards Malays. As long as Malays enjoy preferential treatment, a leader’s tendency to be corrupt has no bearing on his ability to govern. 

Of course my sex life is of no concern to anybody. Even my neighbour’s sex life is of no concern to me or to anybody else. However if my neighbour is a syariah court judge who is responsible for prosecuting sinful behaviour and bad morals, then it is of great interest to me that he practices what he preaches and does not engage in kinky sexploits or if he buggers children and animals. 

Simple rural communities do not understand high finance or the sophisticated cases of how politicians steal from the public. Their understanding is further tested if the case goes to court and proves difficult to prosecute, not to mention selective prosecutions and manipulation of the judiciary. After a while, the cases are hijacked by specialists and experts such as lawyers and pathologists and the people get sidelined. 

However the crimes of a hypocritical leader who has the tendency to knock very skirt or dress he encounters and C4’s them after successful seduction is very easily understood by people. This is the traditional way of judging leaders and their integrity. By arguing that a leader’s sex life has no bearing on his performance in government, the traditional ways that people use to control their leaders are diluted and made ineffective. Both traditional as well as modern controls should be exercised side by side. Both traditional morality as well as modern education should be used side by side. 

Over the centuries, leaders have used what people want most to control them. This applies to sex and money. The leaders can have plenty of both but the people have to be controlled. Sometimes even salt is used as a method of control. A salt monopoly is established and since salt is a necessary food item, it becomes a convenient way to tax and control people. Tobacco, porn, gambling and alcohol is used in similar ways. Sex is an extremely effective way to control people since uncontrolled sex addiction has the same disruptive and destructive effect on society as uncontrolled alcohol consumption or drug addiction and arguments to impose despotic controls can be easily accepted.. 

So interest in sex scandals is a good thing provided it is not a red herring or a distraction from more important criminal cases involving leaders and politicians. By taking interest, people are also reversing the controls and exercising controls over their leaders instead of their leaders exercising control over them, just by making sure there is no hypocrisy in governance or leadership.