Sodomy Law:Not Archaic In Some US States

Hantu Laut

After almost a month in Europe it's nice to be back home.The excitement of the Anwar's sodomy verdict has somewhat subsides but a new political inferno is brewing.........Anwar's proposition to abolish what he called archaic laws in response to BBC's interview where he was asked whether he is prepared to change the discriminatory law against gay rights.

Incidentally, on the morning of Anwar's verdict I was still in Barcelona and the night before wrote my own verdict which I posted at about midnight in Barcelona but due to different time zones just after dawn on the morning of the 9 Jan 2012 in Malaysia.

On the way home I stopped in KL and had dinner with some friends, and as usual typical Malaysian style, you either talk politics or gossip about your friends.Invariably, gossiping about friends was less on my agenda that evening.Our conversations centred between the African waitresses working at the bar we were in then and Anwar's acquittal.I have never seen Africans working in bars or restaurants in KL before, it was the first time, an eye opener, and makes one wonder how did they get work passes for such job? Have our immigration policy changed allowing foreigners from non-traditional territories to work in this country?

Maybe, I should let the Immigration Dept do the worrying and the MACC on its toes.

Back to Anwar's acquittal, I asked one of my friends whether he has read my verdict before the judge officially announce it.His answer was "yes', he has read read it, but suspected someone called me to inform me of the verdict before it went official.....or he thinks, not saying it out loud, I cheated.

Anyway, that was a small part of the story, the bigger problem is how Malaysians are so easily influenced by what they read on the Internet, which, we all know, is completely unregulated and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

As much as there are good things, there are just as much garbage floating in cyberspace.Please read this article from a Malay warrior who has a killer hatred for former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.His personal attack against Mahathir has gone completely berserk and inundated with hate.It makes one wonder who has gone bonkers, he or Mahathir?

You see,how penetrable the conspiracy theory has become, many, my friend included, still think the judiciary is not free, the judges taking orders from politicians.

Anwar and Pakatan's leaders have successfully demonised the judiciary to the throes of hellfire and damnation.The perception of the judiciary of improper conduct will stay for a long time.Here, another writer implied that the judiciary is still ruled by the executive, meaning, the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Back to Anwar's BBC interview. Anwar's response was somewhat contrivable, giving rise to potentially dangerous ambiguities.There were immediate harsh responses from UMNO and Muslim leaders accusing him of wanting to abolish the sodomy law in this country.All Abrahamic religions are against homosexuality.In the West, as state and religion are separate, religion has no power or jurisdiction over such law.In Muslim countries religion incontrovertibly prevails over such perversion and dispense appropriate punishment.

Anyone, even without reading in between the lines, would have interpreted the archaic law he was referring to was the sodomy law. Certainly, the BBC was not referring to the ISA,OSA or the Police Act when the question was thrown at him.He was asked a specific question and he gave specific answer saying that such archaic law should be reviewed.

Malaysia is not the only country with such law, there are 22 states in the United States that still maintained such laws, though, prosecutions are rare as most acts are consensual and rarely reported. Some states, with strong Christians values even outlawed consensual homosexuality, open and notorious cohabitation and adultery.These are so-called archaic laws but some states still refused to repel the law.Most of these types of law in the US have become purely academic, hardly use and against the US Federal constitution.

In the US, the Federal constitution supersedes state laws.Any consensual sodomy prosecution, by any state, if it goes for appeal to Federal Court, would be overturned by the court.

Let say, if Anwar and Saiful, were to live in Alabama, Arizona or Arkansas and Saiful lodged a sodomy rape report against Anwar, the scenario would be the same, Anwar would be subjected to the law of the state and would be arraiged for trail.

Conspiracy, trump-up, framed or not, there would be a trail, to prove him guilty or innocent, unless the state-attorney found Saiful of questionable character and a liar, like the maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape.

Would Utusan be slapped with the RM50 million libel suit by Anwar?