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A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future

by Bernice Low, Malaysia

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Privacy in Bolehland means...

Feb 16, 2009 21:34

... people can take naked pictures of you and get off scott-free (ABSOLUTELY no pun intended there).

Originally, my post today was going to be on the subject of my Week of Disconnect. That was last week, when my office Internet connection died for one whole week, leaving me without access to the Internet between 9am and 6pm for five whole days. If it wasn't for my BlackBerry, I think I would have gone mad.

Ironically, the week I WAS cut off from the Internet was the week that one of the biggest major political events of the year took place--the collapse of the Perak State Government. There I was, unaware of what was going on in the world, cut off from IM, Google and Yahoo, while an entire State Government went down like the Titanic.

Instead, my post today is going to be about a topic that I've repeated myself on ad nauseam. But I'm going to keep on repeating it until, well, I get kicked off this blog or the bloody law actually gets enacted!

WE NEED PRIVACY LAWS!
And we need look no further than the hottest news event unfolding as I write this blog--the circulation of "nude and intimate" photographs of Bukit Lanjan State Assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong in what has been decried as a crude attempt at political skulduggery vide character assassination. Fortunately, as a majority of Malaysians have clearly realized, and as evidenced by comments posted on blogs and news sites, sleeping in the nude is not an offence.

Unfortunately, nor is taking photographs of someone in the buff.

As much as one sympathizes with the position of Elizabeth Wong, it would appear as though she has no real legal remedy for what has happened to her. At least, not one that I can think of. A police report has been filed by Wong but the police don't seem too sure what to classify the crime as. The Sun quotes ACP Arjunaidi Mohamad, Petaling Jaya police chief, as identifying "the distribution of nude photos an offence under Section 292 of the Penal Code, which carries a fine and imprisonment of up to three years or both" as one possible offence for a charge, and the Multimedia Crimes Act, although he did not stipulate the offence under the latter. Incidentally, my research shows that the "Multimedia Crimes Act" does not appear to
exist. I am assuming that the ACP is trying to mean the Multimedia and Communications Act, specifically Section 211: Prohibition on provision of offensive content. (Read S211 in full here.)

At this point, it is not clear who took the photographs. An early report on the Malay Mail seemed to suggest they were taken using a camera-phone from a neighboring building through her bedroom window. (NB: This, I thought, was rather incredulous, although I would love to hear from any mobile phone experts out there if there, indeed, is ANY mobile phone out there capable of such incredible zoom capability). Current news reports circulating suggested that the photographs may have been taken by someone she knew.

At point of writing this blog, there has been nothing to suggest any blackmail is involved in the case. THAT would certainly be an actionable criminal charge.

Irrespective of whichever circumstance it is, legal remedies do not appear to be available for the very simple reason that this is a case of invasion of privacy. And irrespective of whether that invasion was done by someone standing on their balcony or a person in the room with her, THERE IS NO OFFENCE COMMITTED. Unless this person forced his way into her property (thereby committing trespass), she has no civil litigation cause either as far as I can tell. If this person circulates the photographs on the Internet through a foreign server, he probably can't be caught inspite of the extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Computer Crimes Act.

And if for some reason these photos find their way into email somehow (and it's really highly unlikely they will remain uncirculated), while the circulation of nude photographs is clearly an offence under the law, given the viral ferocity in which email can spread information (especially something like nude photographs) and the breadth of circulation that could be involved (one source puts the number of Malaysian Internet users at 14.9 million!), it is difficult to see how the Malaysian Government would seriously actually THINK of prosecuting the potential 14.9 million Malaysians for not only circulating nude photos in this case, for that matter, for circulating ANY kind of nude photos (think of how many people would be caught).

So it's even a question of whether any offence (criminal or civil) has even been committed here.

And if you are shocked/outraged/appalled when reading this, then you deserve to be smacked on the head with a copy of the Malaysian constitution. Welcome to reality in Bolehland, people. You have no rights to privacy in Malaysia.

SO INSTALL CURTAINS AND USE THEM
Snarky curtain recommendations aside, it should be truly disturbing to anyone to know that there really is no cause for redress here for Elizabeth Wong other than, at best, moral repudiation of the person who committed what is without a doubt a very vile, ungentlemanly and completely dishonorable act of sending these photographs out (bring back the rack!). Note: The person who took them may not be the person who sent them out/distributed them--it could have been as oops as sending the mobile phone for a service or downloading the pictures to a laptop that then got sent for a repair job.

Developed countries recognize the significance of privacy as an important civil liberty to the average person. A violation of your privacy, as this case shows, can be deeply personal and be almost as traumatizing as any physical crime. But also important is having a law which ensures that everyone has access to privacy, and not just the rich and politically powerful who have their dirty linen kept private. For that matter, a sophisticated application of the law, as done in the US, would also ensure that the politically powerful have no right to have their dirty linen kept private--love the spotlight? Learn to like the fishbowl that comes with it!

If we are a developed country or think we are a developed country, then we should start taking privacy (the right, and the crime) seriously.

Seeing as our political representatives are the ones who have the MOST to gain from a privacy law (imagine if every MP out there could suppress or sue to stop embarrassing photographs of themselves going out, life would be a lot less interesting for us, but a hell of a lot less stressful for them), you would think they would be getting off their butts and doing some serious privacy legislating rather than playing hopscotch and leapfrog.

In March, we will see the arrival of a new Prime Minister. Perhaps the passing of a Personal Data Protection Act may be a suitable way in which to stamp his mark and set the tone for a new age of proper civil liberties in Malaysia?

Bolehlah.

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About Bernice Low

Bernice Low is a screenwriter and pen-for-hire. At age 11 (in the era of BB--Before Blog) Bernice started her own newspaper, the Daily Jelly. It lasted two days before she was stopped from using school newsprint supplies for frivolous activities. She loves Cartoon Network's Bill and Mandy, has a thing for TV doctors House and MacDreamy, and is the proud owner of a 32-inch flat-screen TV. She believes diamonds and iPods are a girl's best friend. Her blog is her latest guilty pleasure.