WHEN I was little, what would often attract my parents’ ire was when I did a little foot-stamping whenever I didn’t get what I wanted. Of course, I felt that it was unfair but, in our home, there were rules and one that was strictly enforced was any show of defiance of the rules. I grew up to respect rules unless they were patently ridiculous, like refusing to take someone’s police report just because you don’t approve of their clothing.
And then the foot-stamping began. A lawyer who’s supposed to be experienced even suggested that our rulers should interfere in the judgement, despite being constitutional monarchs. If that’s the case, why have courts at all? Why not lay every case, criminal and civil, at the feet of our rulers so that they can exercise their powers of mercy? I doubt they want to be burdened with that, given the number of cases that go through our courts every day. It takes away so much time from more, um, productive things.
Which brings us to another foot-stamping episode, where someone is upset at being called out for doing whatever he wants with impunity. Seriously. It’s not actually a great way to win young fans, fans who like football for example. As it is, our football has suffered such an embarrassment this year with certain officials twisting themselves into all sorts of knots despite being caught out for lying and providing fake documents. Anyone with half a brain can see that none of those so called “heritage players” have any connection with Malaysia.
In his book 1984, George Orwell wrote, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. This was their final, most essential command”. So it was that we are told that we must believe what bureaucracy says instead of what we can see very clearly.
Another bit of foot-stamping may have gone by unnoticed. On the peninsula’s East Coast, where despite the strictest of strict rules – same-sex lines at supermarkets only – people do get up to all sorts of nefarious things. Highest rates of drug use, highest rates of porn streaming, just to name a few. Despite not even being the state with the highest rates of statutory rape, that is, sex with a minor, some enforcement officials there have called for a revision of the law to penalise minors in cases where both parties like each other (suka sama suka).
Side note: I am curious about what is defined as sex by these people. Is holding hands a sexual act?
Even more seriously, the same officials have decided on their own that they would simply hand over cases of statutory rape to the state religious officials. Statutory rape is defined under Section 375(g) of the Penal Code as sexual intercourse with a female under 16 years old, regardless of her consent, making it a strict liability crime with severe penalties (up to 20 years’ imprisonment and whipping) for the male perpetrator, the aim of which is to protect young girls from exploitation. When the police refuse to act on this, think that underaged victims should also be blamed, and then hand them over to religious officials who have no mandate to deal with these cases, what can you call it except a dereliction of duty.
Girls under 16 are regarded as children in our Penal Code and therefore they are not considered to have the maturity to understand the consequences of sex, what more with a partner who might be very much older and therefore more able to persuade the child to acquiesce to his demands. How does this square with our abhorrence of groomers, men who pick on young girls to involve them in sex acts? By ignoring our statutory rape laws, we are making even more girls vulnerable.
It’s tiring when we keep seeing instances of officials seemingly acting according to their whims and fancies instead of the law. Their priority seems not to be serving people but to catering to their own beliefs and prejudices. But that’s not the way a country works. We have a Constitution and laws and policies that flow from it so that we can live together in peace and harmony. Ignoring it is asking for trouble as we have seen repeatedly. Has the rule of law become irrelevant?
Hopefully, with our judges holding the fort, it hasn’t. In 2026, we must be better and do better. We can see examples from elsewhere what chaos erupts when leaders act with impunity. Learning from those mistakes is imperative.
I wish everyone a New Year that’s peaceful, joyful and productive. May we all unite to make this beloved country of ours the best place to be.
Marina Mahathir is trying not to be a year-end wet blanket but it’s hard when there are so many Grinches around. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.
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