KUALA LUMPUR: Two Islamic medical practitioners have come out in support of Terengganu Syariah Enactment, which criminalises out-of-wedlock pregnancy and birth.
In a joint statement today, obstetrician & gynaecologist and reproductive medicine specialist, Datuk Dr Mohamed Hatta Mohamed Tarmizi, who is also I-Medik vice-president, and Dr Murizah Mohd Zain said society must acknowledge that unfettered freedom had undesirable effects.
They point-blankly described the environment people live in today as a "toxic hypersexual environment" heavily influenced by western popular culture that needs to "not only be remedied, but reversed."
"Band-aid solutions are not the answer. Law must be equipped with morality if society is to function smoothly.
"Rather than offering 'consent and condoms' as some sort of solution to social ills, we must address the root of the issue which is comprehensive management of sexual desires," the statement read.
They were responding to the statements made by the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Malaysia (OGSM) and the Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA) regarding the recent amendments to the Terengganu state Shariah Law.
Terengganu Shariah implementation, education and higher education committee chairman Satiful Bahri Mamat was reported as saying that the amendments to Section 29 of the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment 2022 include penalties of up to RM5,000, as well as imprisonment of no more than three years, a maximum six strokes of the rotan, or both.
Dr Mohamed Hatta and Dr Murizah said this conundrum is a true reflection of the post-colonial reality that separates law from morality.
"An effective system to regulate society cannot separate law from morality and that is the nature of the true syariah, a form of governance which is efficient, communally based, socially embedded and a bottom-up method of control which renders it remarkably efficient in commanding willing obedience and less coercive than any state-enforced law.
"Unfortunately, we live today in a society where the true syariah has been displaced by the nation-state, the entity Thomas Hobbes referred to as 'The Leviathan', which now defines what is right or wrong, and enforcing it from a top-down approach.
"In an atmosphere where unlimited freedom is seen as some sort of virtue and must be upheld no matter what the cost, we now see in full display the consequences of disobedience to God which the state has to clumsily deal with. Why are we surprised when the rubber hits the road?" read the statement.
They cited the United States as an example, noting that the age when people first marry and reproduce has been pushed back dramatically, while at the same time the age of puberty has dropped, resulting in an era in which young adults are physiologically able to reproduce but not psychologically or socially ready to "settle down" and begin a family.
These developmental shifts, research suggests, are some of the factors driving the increase in uncommitted sexual encounters, they said.
"Sex outside of marriage has become more engrained in popular culture, reflecting both evolved sexual predilections and changing social and sexual scripts. The media have become a source of bogus sex education, filled with often inaccurate portrayals of sexuality.
"Hollywood has duped us all. The themes of books, plots of movies and television shows, and lyrics of numerous songs all demonstrate a permissive sexuality among consumers which does not reflect reality.
"Popular culture will obviously not burden itself with informing its consumers of the consequences of the immoral behaviour which it aims to normalise.
"Out of wedlock pregnancies, single parenthood, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, sexual assault, issues of consent, and the one often swept under the carpet: mental health consequences particularly for young women."
Dr Mohamed Hatta and Dr Murizah said whilst there was absolutely no question that rape victims and victims of abuse should not be categorised in Section 29, there must be room made available for punitive deterrents to immoral behaviour in our legal system, in addition to ongoing educational efforts.
"As medical professionals, we should really be more holistic in addressing this problem and yet from the statements issued by OGSM and MPA, we are obviously failing to see the wood for the trees.
"Comprehensive sexual education (CSE) which portrays sex outside of marriage as a valid lifestyle choice is obviously a form of ontological imperialism being sold to us in a Trojan horse of 'universal human rights'."
Calling the West "a morally bankrupt 'civilisation'", they stressed that there is no reason at all to presume that Western values of sexuality have the moral high ground of any worth.
"Parroting their narratives is simply evidence of neocolonial mentality."