Malaysian politics can make you stupid

Malaysian politics is political theatre at its most creative. The latest sodomy allegations against opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim and his counter allegations about a conspiracy hatched by the ruling party is engrossing, even if it is a replay of old news from 1998.

A survey by Merdeka Centre found that far more people believe the conspiracy theory than the allegations of sodomy made by Anwar's accuser, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. A leaked medical report from Pusrawi Hospital, a private hospital where Saiful went for a medical examination just prior to making a police report, is being used to prove that the allegations of sodomy are completely false.

Saiful went to Pusrawi on 28 June 2008 around 2 pm, complaining about pain in his anus. The hospital in a public statement confirmed that he was there and that he was seen by a general practitioner, Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid.

The hospital was responding to a story in Malaysian news portal MalaysiaToday claiming that it had gotten hold of a copy of Dr Hamid's report, and that the doctor had written that the objective of the examination was "TRO (to rule out) sodomy". The doctor, in his findings, wrote that there was "zero active bleeding", "zero ulcer or pus" and "zero tear and scar" in Saiful’s anus.

There you go, said Anwar's camp: The sodomy allegations are fake.

However, Pusrawi cast doubt on the veracity of this so-called leaked report. Its general manager Wan Mahmood Wan Yaacob told a news conference a few days ago that "There was no examination done on [Saiful's] sodomy allegation," and that Dr Hamid had advised Saiful to seek treatment with a specialist at the government hospital.

Conveniently, that Dr Hamid was nowhere to be found when his report leaked. He was on leave, the hospital said. He's in hiding in fear of his life because he was being pressured to change the report but he's refusing to do so, MalaysiaToday said.

Who knows what the truth is? This is Malaysian politics.

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What Yawning Bread is concerned about is the education of Singaporean readers. There is a fall-out from all these stories about Anwar and sodomy in Malaysia, for these stories lead people to think that a medical examination can provide conclusive proof of sodomy or absence of it. Moreover, they distort people's understanding of penetrative anal sex.

Let me begin by offering an analogy:

Lucas claims that he and a friend, Marcello, had been gambling over mahjong at the former's home on several occasions.

Gambling being an offence, Lucas makes a police report accusing his friend of it. In the media frenzy that follows, the crime is described, since Marcello won at mahjong more often than Lucas, as one of Marcello robbing Lucas. Furthermore, the story is presented as a one-time event, not as a series of mahjong sessions.

A forensics team visits the home, after which they issue a report, which is subsequently leaked. That report says the forensics officers did not find any bloodstains in the home.

Marcello seizes upon this leaked report, declaring that it proves that he never gambled over mahjong.

You may think the above is a circus of the absurd, but the claims and counter-claims swirling in Malaysia are in fact of a similar nature.

Anal sex can be a perfectly consensual act, whether between a male and female, which is now fully legal in Singapore, or between two males, which the Singapore government has promised to turn a blind eye to. (In Malaysia, consensual anal sex remains a crime.) In fact, like mahjong, almost always when anal sex occurs it is consensual. It is very rare for it to be non-consensual.

Saiful's allegations that he and Anwar engaged in sodomy not once but on several occasions suggest that if true, it was not coerced. Saiful has so far not provided any reason why Anwar might wield some powerful psychological hold or threat that might have induced the younger man to submit repeatedly.

The crime of sodomy (not that it should be a crime at all), like the crime of gambling, means both parties are equally guilty. It's not like a crime of robbery, with one party committing an act against the interests of the other.

Yet the Malaysian media is treating Saiful's allegations as equivalent to sexual assault. Just look at their choice of words. So, my first concern is that Singaporean readers likewise begin to think that anal sex is the same as assault.

Doctor, have I been sodomised yet?

Having made this misleading assumption, all eyes are now on medical reports, thinking that a doctor's examination can prove conclusively whether the event has taken place. 

If you're looking for assault, i.e. a violent penetration, then yes, there will probably be evidence in the form of bruising or tearing. But everybody seems to have forgotten that the starting allegations were of sodomy, and almost surely consensual ones at that, over a period of time.

I am concerned that an incidental effect of all this political theatre in Malaysia, where emotive rhetoric and loose logic are flung about, is to leave people with the association of anal sex with assault, putting it roughly in the same category as rape. Then it's a short step to treating all gay men with suspicion, seeing them as sexual predators.

This is how misinformation and prejudice is spread. 

No doubt, some (straight) readers will say I am being over-sensitive. But if you've ever been at the receiving end of unexamined associations and unthinking prejudice, you might agree with me how important it is to nip such stereotype in the bud.

© Yawning Bread 

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