Upholding Asian decency in Singapore.

[tokyo_girl]

After reading this I feel so warm and fuzzy about living in Asia

No oral sex please, this is clean-living Singapore

By Mark Baker, Herald Correspondent in Singapore

February 18, 2004

Singapore's 77-year-old chief judge has given an earthy defence of his country's notorious prohibition on oral sex - declaring the law should be upheld to safeguard Asian standards of decency.

Sending a 25-year-old former policeman to jail for 12 months for receiving oral sex from a teenage girl, Chief Justice Yong Pung How said that despite growing permissiveness in some countries there were "certain offences that are so repulsive in Asian culture".

"There are countries where you can go and suck away for all you are worth," the judge said.

"People in high places do it for all they're worth. I'm not an expert, but you read about it in the papers. But this is Asia."

Justice Yong was hearing an appeal by Annis Abdullah against the severity of his two-year prison sentence for receiving oral sex from a girl, originally described by prosecutors as 16 years old, but later revealed to be 15 and a minor. Under Singapore law, oral sex, anal sex and homosexual intercourse are defined as acts "against the law of nature" and punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

The Singapore Government has flagged a review of the law after mounting opposition and international ridicule.

The accused's defence lawyer, Surinder Dhillon, said the girl, who met Annis at a party, had later phoned him five times before he agreed to the date on which they had sex in his car.

While agreeing to reduce Annis's sentence, Justice Yong spurned arguments that the lack of aggravating circumstances made an extended prison sentence "manifestly excessive".

"Women are freer, they don't just run around the kitchen as it were," he said. "But ask any mother or your sisters and you'll get a different answer. No lady or woman would ask what aggravation is needed . . . the offence itself is an aggravation."

[confucius]

Be honest! You're just anxious to see what Confucius thinks about this, aren't you?

[tokyo_girl]

Confucius and others...

I nearly choked on my coffee reading the article.

Maybe justice Yong needs to come to Japan to instill some Asian values.

[confucius]

At first glance I had something funny to say about this story.

Upon further review the girl was a minor, so Annis is still guilty of a legitimate crime.

This isn't necessarily a case about oral sex, it's really about sex with a minor. The judge's "suck" comment is amusing, but still irrelevant with regard to the crime committed.

When two consenting heterosexual adults are arrested for oral sex in Singapore then Mark Baker should bring it to the world's attention and we'll have more fun with it.

[skylee]

Upon further review the girl was a minor, so Annis is still guilty of a legitimate crime. This isn't necessarily a case about oral sex, it's really about sex with a minor.

I agree.

[smithsgj]

> No lady or woman would ask what aggravation is needed . . . the offence itself is an aggravation

Surely a *judge* can't have said that about aggravation! It's a legal term for crying out loud. And wtf is a "lady or woman"? I suspect the whole thing has been mistranslated and/or misreported.

[cometrue]

Confucius and others...

I nearly choked on my coffee reading the article.

Maybe justice Yong needs to come to Japan to instill some Asian values.

yep! im sure the country you are living in is famous for their.....sex.

[tokyo_girl]

Agree on the minors - at least with that sort of age difference.

Were that the basis of the prison sentence - no objection.

I doubt translation would come into it as it would presumably have been in English originally.

THat said though it could be mischievously represented.

I think though the values Justice Yong talks of are more like Victorian England values rather than 'Asian values'.

[cometrue]

I think though the values Justice Yong talks of are more like Victorian England values rather than 'Asian values'.

seems my better choice is keeping silence.

[Lu]

How did they find out in the first place? Who went to the police??

[TSkillet]

Whoo-hoo! i've broken the law in Singapore . . .and gotten away with it!

[tokyo_girl]

Congrats !

[smithsgj]

There's a story -- possibly apocryphal -- about an American who's learning Chinese with a private teacher and has reached a fairly advanced level. It had struck him, rightly or wrongly, that Chinese people aren't as argumentative as Westerners.

So he says to his teacher "你們中國人很不喜歡口角, 對不對?"

The teacher is flabbergasted, aghast and embarrassed.

The American hadn't realized that 角 in this context is pronounced jue2 not jiao3. And his tones were a bit off as well. So the teacher thought he was asking about something which is highly illegal in Singapore, 口交.

By the way, anal sex used to be illegal in the UK until I think about twenty years ago. Anyway old and brave enough to own up to related criminal activities?

[nnt]

By the way' date=' anal sex used to be illegal in the UK until I think about twenty years ago.[/quote']

Not twenty years: I've read it was so just a few years ago, before Blair's arrival ("Back to basis" policy...)

[smithsgj]

Like, back to "fundamentals", then.

[skylee]

So the teacher thought he was asking about something which is highly illegal in Singapore

This is interesting, like something is more illegal that others.

[Quest]

Good thing they are not Buddhists.