Ooi Kean Thong, 24, and Siow Ai Wei, 22

Names to conjure with. I wonder what will happen to them if they get convicted.

Posted by: Interested at April 5, 2006 5:37 AM

Niente sesso, siamo malesi.

Posted by: Hugh at April 5, 2006 9:05 AM

Reading this, I thought of a new definition for the cult of Mohammad-

Islam: the kiss of death.

Posted by: profitsbeard at April 5, 2006 11:29 AM

Funny, there is quite a lot of hidden camera photos of young bumi muslim maylayo girls wearing the garb with male private organs in hand and inside their own bodies circulating for last couple of years. All snapped in these KL parks.

Strange how in this racist bumiputra hell hole, they clean up and can only catch offenders with chinese sounding names, I bet there not moslems, and then only for kissing.

Still the bumi-malays sold out long ago, but its a pity to see indonessia about go down the tube.

Posted by: sri at April 5, 2006 1:07 PM

Have you noticed the name? These are not moslem names !!! they sound Chinese or Vietnamese

Posted by: Anti-PC at April 5, 2006 4:58 PM

If Muslims living in the West have the right to live under Shari`ah law even in Western countries, then why can't Chinese living in Malaysia [truly Asia] live under Chinese moral codes? Just because the local Muslims claim to be against kissing in public, why should that bind the Chinese or other non-Muslims, non-Malays in Truly Asia Land?

Posted by: Eliyahu at April 5, 2006 6:25 PM

How come when I when I went out to the beach in front of the Club Med in Agadir Morroco I saw men making out?

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at April 5, 2006 6:30 PM

Yes they are both ethnic Chinese (non-Muslim), caught, victimized and judged by Muslims. The people who caught them at the KLCC park were asking for bribes. When the couple decided not to "pay up", they were arrested. The corrupt Kuala Lumpur City Hall workers were using morality as a pretext for extortion. The couple were not even kissing, just holding hands....

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-4-2004_pg9_12

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Couple in court over public kissing

A Chinese couple are due in court in Malaysia this week after they were caught hugging and kissing in public. Schoolteacher Ooi Kean Thong, 22, and student Siow Ai Wei, 20, were arrested for alleged indecent behaviour at a park in the capital Kuala Lumpur last year.

If found guilty, the pair face a fine of around RM2000 or a year in prison, says the New Straits Times.

Council officials who saw the pair, said the offence was indecent behaviour and a violation of the city’s Parks By-Law. But the couple say they were reading and only holding hands when they were arrested. —Ananova

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608917/posts

Kissing couple face jail (up to a year for kissing in public in Muslim nation)
Sunday Times (South Africa) ^ | Tuesday April 04, 2006 14:26 - (SA)

Posted on 04/04/2006 7:54:12 AM PDT by dead

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's highest court has ruled that two young people accused of kissing and hugging in a public park can be charged with indecent behaviour.

The federal court in the mainly Muslim nation made the ruling in a hard-fought case involving Ooi Kean Thong, 24, and Siow Ai Wei, 22.

The couple were allegedly caught embracing and kissing by city hall officials in August 2003 in a park at the city's iconic Twin Towers.

The students have said they received summonses for indecent behaviour when they refused to bribe two city hall officials, who have denied the claims.

Their lawyer S. Selvam argued that hugging and kissing were expressions of love that should be encouraged, and that city hall had no right under Malaysia's constitution to charge the couple with indecency.

But federal court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said such behaviour was not the norm for Malaysians.

"So they should be given freedom to live as they like? The constitution allows all citizens to do that (hugging and kissing) even by the roadside, in public park?" he said.

"In England, those acts are acceptable to the people in that country, but is kissing and hugging acceptable to Malaysian citizens? Is the act according to the morality of the Asian people?"

Ooi and Siow will now face indecency charges at Kuala Lumpur city hall's court. If convicted, they could be fined up to 2000 ringgit (543 dollars) or jailed for up to a year or both.

Sapa-AFP

Posted by: bamsterkins at April 5, 2006 10:13 PM

Malaysia's Opposition Leader from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) has this to say:

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=433#more-433

Public kissing/hugging actionable offence?
Time & Date: April 5, 2006 @ 12: 49.02
Categories: Law & Order General Social

Is public kissing and hugging an actionable offence?

I have received the following email from J.T. on this subect. Air your views:

I hope you will highlight for discourse the Federal Court’s ruling and implications in respect of the two young couple – Ooi Kean Thong, 24, and Siow Ai Wei, 22 – who will have to defend themselves against a charge of indecent behaviour leveled against them by Kuala Lumpur City Hall Court based on section 8(1) of the Park By-Laws. (see report in The Sun April 5 page 1 and 3 and Malaysiakini’s report).

The Federal Court (Justice Ahmad Fairuz) posed the rhetorical question, “In England, those acts are acceptable to the people in that country, but is kissing and hugging acceptable to Malaysian citizens? Is the act according to the morality of the Asian people?” The answer to that in the negative is the rationale of the Federal Court’s ruling against the young couple when the constitutional question was posed to the court whether section 8(1) of the Park By-Laws infringes Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing Freedom of life.

With all due respect to the Federal Court, I disagree with the rationale of the ruling and am concerned of its implications.

Is kissing and hugging in public an indecent act, unacceptable to Malaysians or even the morality of the Asian people?

With due respect, morality is morality, law is law – let us not mix up morality and law as if they cover the same area, at least not in the context of our secular constitution and laws.

In the continuum of human conduct including public conduct, morality represents the maximum socially approved conduct based on the highest aspirations and ideals of a society.

In contrast, laws especially that which imposes punishment on the other hand deal with the minimum conduct by which people must abide or observe in order not to be prosecuted. Such conduct below the minimum is anti social behaviour harmful to the rights of others. It is this latter category that the law imposing fines and penalty should address.

This fundamental separation of morality from law – the first under the purview of teachings by parents and schools and the second enforced by authorities – has to be maintained if we are not to change into an Islamic State. Counsel for the couple should have driven home this jurisprudential separation of morality from laws (subject to laws being common law which I believe our Constitution is till based on): see Lon L Fuller’s jurisprudential treatise on “Morality of Law” Revised Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964).

From the standpoint strictly on morality, with all necessary respect, this is the first I hear that hugging and kissing by young people in public area is deemed indecent or immoral in Asian Countries.

I don’t know about West Asia comprising large swathes of the Middle East but I doubt kissing and hugging between young non muslim couples is deemed immoral much less a prosecutable offence in Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, India, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam or Burma.

How are we going to promote tourism under the Ninth Malaysia Plan if Western tourists may be apprehended by overzealous City Hall’s officials and prosecuted and fined for hugging and kissing in the park area in front of the twin towers? They may even be hugging and kissing as a pose for a photograph.

Surely section 8(1) of the Park Bylaws cannot be applied to locals in exemption of foreigners! We cannot apply two standards of law on different people at least not in this kind of cases.

If hugging and kissing by young people in public is deemed indecent and unlawful, how can this behaviour be proscribed in the park and yet allowed to be demonstrated in other public domain like for example the cities’ streets or even on the shows on TVs and ASTRO? As a public place is not confined to only public parks but may be even extended to KLIA, am I to be worried if I hug and kiss a visitor of opposite sex in a public area like the KLIA when I greet her on her visit to Malaysia?

One of the first implications is that we will be enmeshed in inconsistent and selective enforcement. Another implication is that we are opening another avenue for corrupt officials to expect bribe from couples caught expressing affection in public.

How is it going to help the government’s effort to eradicate or stem corruption in Malaysia?

How does it help the 9MP’s objective to raise the country’s capacity for knowledge, creativity and innovation and nurture “first class mentality” by 2020, when we attribute shame, immorality and impropriety to even fully clothed young couple giving each other a chaste kiss or hug in public?

The real issue here is the need to keep separate morality from law in the context of our laws and constitution being secular.

Is the Federal Court now laying down the principles that morality and law are inseparable, and that the laws are now used to enforce even morality?

Whose morality then? Whether or not Malaysians view kiss or hug in public immoral can only be determined by a definitive survey and opinion poll. I believe that even if majority non muslims do not approve hugging or kissing in a public area, this does not mean that they think it is an unlawful behaviour warranting the intervention of the law to proscribe it. Not unless we are already living and abiding the laws of an Islamic State. How do we create and foster “Bangsa Malaysia” when non Muslim and non Malays are haunted incessantly by fears of creeping Islamisation of their way of life and the changing of the secular character of our Federal Constitution?

Posted by: bamsterkins at April 5, 2006 10:16 PM

Malaysia Truly Asia : Warning to tourists -
DO NOT Hold hands/kiss/embrace in public or get hauled to court.

Better yet, go visit a country in which you will not be treated like a Dhimmi nor have Islamic-holier-than-thou "morality" imposed upon you.

Posted by: bamsterkins at April 5, 2006 10:26 PM

And tell all your friends about the risks of visiting islamic countries. I might call a few travel agents and tell them I was considering visiting Indonesia and Malaysia, but have now seen these news items that have put me off. It would be good if the travel industry started making a fuss.

Posted by: Lili at April 6, 2006 1:12 AM

Yes agreed, no point in taking the risk in any islamic country as a tourist! you must be joking! In fact, most have no tourist assets, only terrorist assets. There are many great places to go in the world who don't have man's worst invention on display or at large in the form of creeping shariah.

Malaysia truely Arab.. true but a different ring to it. Needs a new tune, but its still "dead duck"

Anyway, seen one mosqcue or hijab on TV you have seen them all.

Sadly, now its gone past the usuall "coffee money" stage, these two hand-holders are probably all out of luck from here on.

Worst thing is a such big percentage of Malaysians are dhimmis.

Posted by: sri at April 6, 2006 12:42 PM

non-Muslims should evacuate this place for good--ASAP.

Investors SHOULD be persuaded to invest elsewhere.

And western tourists should DEFINITELY cross this political ratbin of a country off their list of places to go. No one should be financing Islamic psychosis anywere, even if there is lovely tropical scenery in the place in question (as in Malaysia).

Posted by: pythagoras at April 6, 2006 3:25 PM

Sri wrote:

"Malaysia truely Arab"

Hot damn!

I'm gonna get a T-shirt emblazoned with that and wear it proudly when next I visited that shithole country.

Posted by: Vincent Wong at April 6, 2006 11:37 PM

"you must be joking! In fact, most have no tourist assets, only terrorist assets. "

You're forgetting Indonesia.

Posted by: Lili at April 7, 2006 12:20 AM