A Kiss is Not Just a Kiss

In Malaysia a few weeks ago, a heterosexual Chinese couple was found guilty of indecency for kissing in public. In Jakarta, Indonesia, it was ruled that people related to each other could kiss in public but only for five minutes. AsiaNews reports on these two cases in ‘How to Measure a Kiss’ (05 May 2006).

Marina Mahathir, daughter of former Malaysian Prime Minister, in her opinion piece ‘Show of Affection’ in AsiaNews (05 May 2006) wondered if the authorities would go round public parks with stopwatches. She concludes her article:

You have to wonder about the people who think these laws are a good idea. Do they have so little love and affection in their lives that they have to make the lives of others miserable? While some people may say that these sorts of physical displays need not be done in public, surely most of us are intelligent enough to tell the difference between affection and lewdness. Nobody is having sex in public; if they were, there are already laws against it.

But then maybe that’s the plan: first we start with public affection. Next we go after private affection. Love will be banned entirely in this country.

The link to AsiaNews is http://www.asianewsnet.net/epaper.php. The above items do not seem to have individual post links so you may need to search the archive is you can’t immediately see them in the navigation bar.