Sex and the Malaysian politician
Does anyone really care about the alleged Daim sex tape?
COMMENT
Sex and Malaysian politics are a lot closer than they perhaps should be. After all, allegations of a sexual nature run rampant in our political culture as the weapon of choice to discredit an enemy, and given the generally conservative nature of some Malaysians, it should work fairly well in terms of character assassination. It does sometimes backfire, as in the case of a former MCA president who leveraged on his scandal to rise to the top of the party.
The flavour of the day seems to be the sex tape supposedly featuring former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, which no one has yet seen, of course. But a YouTube video claims Daim has had sexual encounters in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. It even claims that these girls were underage, and that Daim paid a premium of US$10,000 for girls that were virgins as verified by his personal doctor.
That is kinky and seems to suggest that Daim has some issues with control and power, if the allegations are indeed true. However, the sex tape, if it does show Daim in the act of intercourse with an underage girl, should not be something shown in the public domain unless it is in a court of law as admissible evidence.
For one thing, it would be child pornography. For another, it is doubtful that many people care about Daim’s sex life any more than we care about Anwar’s, or Elizabeth Wong’s, or even Chua Soi Lek’s for that matter. Nearly every year without fail a political figure seems to be thrown into a sex scandal of some form or another, and the people are tired. It detracts from the question of whether the person in question has the ability and capability to lead, which should be the ultimate criterion for the election of a representative or leader.
That being said, the video probably resonates with some of the more conservative members of our society as a point of outrage, but in general, what a man or woman does in the bedroom is his own business. Anyone would be angry if anyone was peeking into his sex life. The privilege of privacy in personal matters is something we value highly.
Instead, our politicians believe that pandering to our basest instincts is the most effective way of discrediting each other, instead of working in tandem to actually solve Malaysia’s problems. Let’s face it, on both sides of the political divide exist individuals with chequered pasts, and nearly everyone has skeletons in the closet that he doesn’t want people to see. I suspect politicians have more than most should we adhere to the maxim that power corrupts, and absolute power absolutely corrupts, but as far as a politician’s personal life goes, if it has no impact on the governance and finances of the country and the rakyat, it is his own business.
What we have now is a dirty game of one-upmanship that is dragging down the credibility of our entire political system.
There are so many issues with this country that you’d imagine playing games would be the furthest thought from the minds of some of our politicians. After all, when you’re not performing well at your job, the only means of recourse is to work harder till you’re performing at the standard expected of you.
Then again, the term “workplace politics” exists for a reason.
As far as the Daim tape is concerned, if it can be proved that the girl in the supposed tape is underage, then we have a criminal case on our hands. If not, it has nothing to do with us, and we care nothing about it. The people are tired of antics and shenanigans, and it’s time to actually back up the talk with performance instead of circus sideshows to distract from the fact that Vision 2020 is fading away
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