Syed Nadzri reports (NST 11th April 2006):The law of 5-minutes Kisses in, of all places, Indonesia seems to have sparked interesting food for thought.
According to Indonesian reports, unrelated couples who kiss for more than five minutes in public would be liable to arrest under new rules being considered in Tangerang in the outskirts of Jakarta. They say the move is being seen as a crackdown on un-Islamic behaviour.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, it is written in the laws that you can kiss in public (presumably hug, too) but it becomes an offence if it is for more than five minutes.
In Malaysia, as the case of the students, you will be taken to court if a city council enforcement officer deems (at their discretion) that you are committing an indecent act and, therefore, causing public disorder. That’s one inconsistency already.The court last Tuesday unanimously held that Kuala Lumpur City Hall was correct to charge two students with behaving indecently by hugging and kissing at a park beside the Kuala Lumpur City Centre. Because of this, the case against them will proceed and if found guilty, they face a fine of up to RM2,000 or even up to a year in jail.
The food for thought is when we look at the Kuala Lumpur by-law and the Tangerang by-law side by side, both standing up for upholding good morality. No matter what some people say, morality laws tend to be ambiguous, inconsistent and very subjective.
The two situations seem to confirm this — one in Malaysia and the other in Indonesia, two countries with similar cultural and religious backgrounds and showing signs of rolling back into ultra-conservatism.
3 comments:
5 minutes is a long-time to kiss so I suppose that rule is really quite funny. Can someone set an alarm for a 4min50sec kiss and hug then??
5 mins will be a long, lingering, passionate kiss then!
i would say if want to time, 1 min. should be enough! not more than 1 min. lah, not 5 mins.
haha. so silly rule. what if someone would to argue "what? 5 mins? i had only been kissing for 4 mins, 55 secs."?
Conservatism or not, there need a legislature on public conduct. The defence council argue kissing and hugging as manisfestation of love and must be encouraged. The question is; is it love or lust? Even if love, why in public park? Cant they do it somewhere in private. Or are they posing for the National Geographic?
Of course there are lots of argument on what is decency but that should not stop the effort to find the best line to be drawn;
- Holding hands?...emmm not too bad
- Holding waist?...errr not too close
- Tight waist hugging? ..mmmmmmm
- Peck on the cheek?... Lemme see
- Short kiss?..how short??..
- Lip kissing..1 sec..2 sec..5 min?
- Hugging, kissing, stroking, raba?
- Passionate kissing lying down??
Come on.. Lets cut it short..why not have a public poll that covers all strata of the society. Let's them have their say...that means the internet savvy, the literate, illiterate, educated, uneducated, madrasah student, whores, grand daddies, fathers, daughters, sons...let everybody have a say...
So far the paper columns are very divided along racial lines, the malays seem in favor and chinese against... But let not stop at the writers, go down to kampungs, orang asli posts as well. They have a vote in this country isnt it?
Post a Comment