privacy and adultery
Post on Jan.07, 2008
an extract of a comment i received at this post of mine:
If committing adultery is considered private as in the case of CSL, then I guess if he goes around killing somebody because that somebody blackmailed him, it would be OK, because it is a private matter?
an extract from a malaysiakini letter:
I am sick and tired of those who keep repeating the mantra that ‘It is no one’s business if something is done in private’. So it is okay to rape, steal, cheat, etc, if it is done in private? Does not the act itself deserve condemnation, whoever does it?
well, let me tell you, i am sick and tired of those who don’t know the meaning of privacy, those who equates CRIMES as privacy.
first of all let me say loudly, i do NOT approve of adultery. to me adultery is WRONG. very wrong. morally wrong.
but is adultery a crime? can the guilty party be charged?
are killing, rape, theft, cheating crimes?
adultery is usually where both parties consented to the act.
when killing, rape, theft, cheating happens, do both parties consented?
sure almost all killings, rapes, theft, cheating are done in private. the case of the little girl nurin being killed – it was done in private right? people siphoning off cash from bank account (theft) is done in private right? why do we condemn these acts? because the perpetrators does it to the victim. ‘victim’ here means that person as a victim of course does not agree to be killed or cheated!
in adultery, is there a perpetrator and a victim? no!
so how on earth can people compare adultery, said to be done in private, to crimes like murders, rapes, theft?
adultery is wrong for sure, and yes we should condemn adultery but when it happens to someone i don’t know, someone not related to me at all, why should i bother about it, since it is that someone’s private affair? it is a case of his/her private morality. who am i to question or judge his private morality? (especially when his/her partner is willing!) the only person/s right to condemn/judge him/her would be his/her spouse and family!
ok i’m talking here about privacy and adultery in general and this post of mine is just to bring up the point of people associating adultery with crimes (both done in private).
anyway, i guess some of you guys would link it to CSL’s case, bringing the point of him being a public figure, arguing that there is a difference being an ordinary people (like you and me) and being a public figure that is well-known, go and read this letter by jeffrey in malaysiakini. that letter more or less sum up my feelings. i believe this jeffrey here might be the same jeffrey from ‘where’s my noose‘ blog who rightly said that what malaysians lack is pragmatism and an ability to look at oneself in the mirror without seeing an angel or a saint.
btw, i recommend you to read anil netto’s ‘the gave sin of chua soi lek‘. (note esp. the last line)
January 7th, 2008 on 4:21 AM
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January 7th, 2008 on 9:38 AM
Hi Lucia, thanks for your comment on my post. FYI though, neither Jeff nor I (once-in-a-blue-moon second writer in wheresmynoose) wrote that letter to Malaysiakini.
January 7th, 2008 on 12:11 PM
Just to illustrate how distorted Bolehland’s priorities are.
The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs ministry continues to lurch from crisis to crisis on the supply of basic everyday necessities – Flour, Sugar, Diesel, and Cooking Oil (the latest crisis is the 3rd this year). I went to the Penang Tesco yesterday – the shelf is bare of cooking oil.
There’s obviously serious mismanagement of the demand/supply system. Yet the KPDNHEP Minister is still sitting pretty there.
January 7th, 2008 on 1:57 PM
You have decided to be a moral judge.
A moral wrong, which relates to an individual in his private capacity without doing any harm to another party except to be answerable to his own family for whatever he did which calls into question his promises and fidelity to none others than his spouse and children, is to be judged by God alone.
We can’t say adultery is a far worse sin than cheating, lying, stealing, breaking promises, laziness or blasphemy. A sin is a sin, in the eyes of the Lord. It’s far easier to judge others for things we do not agree, and for which we as individual believed it was wrong and of course we can pick a word or a phrase from the Bible to justify our contention. But the Bible must be read as a whole and not taken out of context. Read the old testament and justify the acts of King David, Lot and his daughters, Samson, Abraham and his wife, and see the moral aspects. We still shower them with praises and devotions, for all what they did, in the moral context.
I am no preacher nor a moralist. But the contents of the Old testaments must not be ignored and taken as a privileged of those, to the exclusion and exclusiveness.
January 7th, 2008 on 3:22 PM
lucia,
ah well, he already resigned, so all I can say is, at least we didn’t really lose a great leader. He’s a MCA MP anyway, and in my book, he has already lost points for voting in laws and constitutional amendments that do no service to this country.
January 7th, 2008 on 6:32 PM
I believe what Lucia is trying to say is no doubt Chua’s action is morally wrong ( biblically ) and personally ( to the family and that lady ?) but what the heck !
Why are the real criminals going round free as a bird !
And what are you angels ( in disguise ) doing about this ? Except talk C all day and all night ?
January 7th, 2008 on 8:47 PM
I agree with Klaw. http://tinyurl.com/3d6u96
January 8th, 2008 on 2:17 AM
zai
thanks for pointing out to me that the m’kini letter writer jeffrey is not the same as your blogger mate, jeff.
kitty
oh that is an OT… and a topic i’m not comfortable to blog on since i don’t cook and i don’t do marketing!
mave
huh? me a moral judge? i think you had better re-read my post again and again. i did not make any judgement at all and most certainly i NEVER said adultery is a worse sin than cheating, lying, stealing, etc.
in fact, what you wrote in your very first paragraph was exactly what i was trying to say. yes we do share the same view yet…
i really don’t know how you read and understand my post here… er… don’t understand more like it. i am disappointed.
klaw
actually this post of mine, i was not talking about CSL. i wanted to show how silly it was for some people to compare adultery with murders, rape, theft (putting them in the context of ‘private affair) – that was my main point in this post.
toni
well as i respond to klaw above – see the intention of this post of mine… but since you brought up CSL, hey, you are right indeed! you can read my mind so well!
wits
of course you would agree with klaw since klaw exposed his flaws… which was what you had been doing all the while.
well i guess it is only natural when you don’t like a person, you will search and pin point all his flaws/negative points.
no i don’t like him too and i know he has lots of flaws but what has all his flaws to do with his adultery? why no crying out for his blood before his adultery was exposed?
ok i believe that the best thing for him was to resign, right, but what i don’t like is people with a holier than thou attitude who keep saying what he did was wrong, when to me, as i said, it is his own private business and none of us can judge him except his wife/family and yes… as mave said, god.
(oh btw, next time i appreciate if you don’t post that blogger’s link here)
January 8th, 2008 on 9:30 PM
Lucia,
Ya, I read wrongly. Apologise. I think you shared the same point as mine. I may have read those references from the quotes. Next time, I will read clearer…sooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii