by P Ramakrishnan

We have laws to curb the circulation of pornographic material. We have a vigilant police force to raid pornographic outlets and enforce law and order.

We have a judiciary that shows no mercy to those indulging in the sale of pornographic videos to guard the moral sense of the society.

We have a special section in the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN), which vets publications and bans books and magazines which are explicit in their pornographic contents.

And of course we have Pusat Islam at the federal level and its equivalent at all the state levels who have been moral policing the rakyat.

We prosecute those in possession of pornographic material. We don’t spare those viewing pornographic videos even in the confines of their homes.

Such is our revulsion for pornography that we spare no effort in curbing and controlling pornographic material in all forms – which is very commendable.

This is why Malaysians are flabbergasted that the police have not moved in to take action against a businessman and two politicians who have publicly admitted to the possession of a pornographic video.

Not only that, they have even screened this video for viewing purposes for invited guests which included certain media reporters; the President of Kita, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim; the MP for Sungai Petani, Datuk Johari Abdul, who brought along an unnamed Umno guy; the former PKR central committee member, Badrul Hisham; and possibly many others about whom we have not been told yet.

In other words, they are actually screening pornographic video for certain individuals to view in various places in Kuala Lumpur. It would seem that they were on a screening spree! Those who have viewed the video have all confessed to having seen it.

These characters calling themselves ‘Datuk T’ have even screened this video in a respectable place like the Carcosa Seri Negara hotel with immunity, spending RM1,350 for rental.
Why would these Datuk T – who have openly and boldly admitted possessing and exhibiting the pornographic tape in their public utterances without any restraint – go to this extent knowing that what they are doing is clearly in breach of the law?

These purveyors and pedlars of pornographic material are even conferred the respectable term “messenger” by none other than the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who is in charge of parliament, which had passed laws outlawing pornographic material.

Nazri even seems to be suffering from a sudden bout of amnesia not knowing if there are laws prohibiting the screening of the sex video. Sometimes ‘rule of law’ is given a twisted meaning that we no longer wonder why we have become the laughing- stock of the world.

The person – Datuk Shazry Eskay Abdullah – who claims to have been at the hotel where this ‘performance’ was staged with a carefully selected look-alike performing artiste – comes across in the minds of Malaysians either as a conniving pimp or a despicable director of pornographic video.

It is difficult to believe his tale that he went back to the hotel where the video was filmed to retrieve the Omega watch and consequently stumbled upon the recording equipment and discovered the recorded video. It looks as if the video was lying there waiting to be discovered by this character!

When he went back to the hotel to retrieve the watch, it is unlikely that the hotel management would have given him the key for him to go and look for the watch without someone accompanying him. It was such a sensitive room where sexual exploits were filmed. That particular room could not have been accessible to all and sundry. The hotel would not have taken such a risk.

This would suggest that he was part of the syndicate that was involved in the pornography industry. He had a free hand to roam about in that room which was well equipped with recording facilities. He and the others, it would appear, must have been operating from this hotel and from this room producing sex videos either to blackmail the unsuspecting victims or for commercial purposes.

This theory is something that is believable. After all didn’t Ummi Hafildah mention there are 18 pornographic videos in existence involving politicians who have been caught with their pants down!

(P Ramakrishnan is president of Aliran)