Unsound ethics of the moral police

New Straits Times Kuala Lumpur

The enforcement officials have been criticized for violating the due process of law and accused of infringing the criminal procedure code. The matter is now with the Attorney General's Chambers. If there is sufficient evidence to charge the alleged perpetrator of the offense, he should be brought to court and punished as a deterrent against such perversions.

But this is not just a question of the misconduct of enforcement officers. Neither is it merely a question of particular Rela members acting on their own without the official approval of the relevant Rela authority. The question is why Rela is involved in enforcing the laws on public morality.

This volunteer corps was established to help protect and defend the country. It is conceived as the "third line of national defense" and has also been given a supporting role in disaster relief and crime prevention. Rela has been involved in curbing smuggling, for example.

But cracking down on people for indecent dressing and consuming alcohol is not the same as protecting people from crimes such as murder, theft and assault. Self-righteous and judgmental volunteers with questionable ethics should have no place in the contentious role that the state plays as the custodian of morality.

Conservatives argue that such laws are needed to protect the moral tapestry of society. But the criminalization of those acts and behaviors which are deemed as transgressing religious laws smack of the kind of moral prescription the Taliban sought to impose on Afghanistan.

How different is Jawi from the "morality police" of Iran and Saudi Arabia who cruise the streets searching for signs of immorality as expressed by dress and behavior which do not conform to the prescribed codes? The danger is that in the zeal to eradicate vice, the defenders of morality would be prone to excesses. The religious authorities should temper their punitive powers and rely on other instruments to engrave sound morals in the hearts of the believers.