Friday, April 9, 2010

Excuse to be unruly

We know that during disaster, natural or otherwise, there will be folks who take the opportunity to riot, steal and rob....basically break the law. But those are usually under extreme conditions such as earthquake or in war torn countries whereby there is shortage of basic needs such as food stuff. People in extreme conditions could be driven to desperate acts.

However, in this case, the unruly behaviour of those involved is inexcusable. It was reported that a couple caught having extramarital affair in Indonesia were paraded naked through their village and beaten by an angry mob. They would have died if the police had not intervened in time.

Under the law they would face public canning. Now this is double punishment. Though having an extramarital affair is socially frowned upon, however it is still a private matter between those involved and not a public affair.

Aside from the official heavy punishment which is unjust, the couple has been publicly humiliated and beaten up. Surely taking the law into your own hands and seriously injuring others is also breaking the law. Those unruly folks should be dealt with by the law too.

Besides, these folks are suppose to be so conservative, demanding their women to be cover up from head to foot, why are they parading the couple in their nakedness ? They are taking the opportunity to do openly what is forbidden both under the law and their religion. They are just a bunch of coward bigots who hide behind a religious front to commit obscene act as a group.

The sad fact is we have plenty of such people with similar mentality around us, who use the protective mask of various religions to go about prosecuting others under the pretext of upholding morality.

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