The on-going moral crusade against pornographic VCDs and massage parlours, among others, has highlighted the hypocrisy of our society.

I find it very amusing that we are still banging on the fact that our Asian culture is far superior to western culture and therefore these things should not be allowed. If our culture is morally superior, why do we have such problems in the first place?

In a letter to the editor of a local paper recently, a foreign couple was allegedly reprimanded by local enforcement officers for holding hands and hugging in a public park, on the basis that our 'culture' does not allow this.

The irony was this officer apparently solicited money in order to let this couple go. Oh I see, corruption is allowed in our culture, is it?

Yet there are those of the opinion is that such hypocrisy is limited only to certain groups of people. No, it is not. The malaise is everywhere.

Massage parlours extending all sorts of services, karaoke joints that offer more than lyrics, and personal services offered along many roads in Kuala Lumpur, are a common picture here.

At least, in the western countries, they do not pretend that there is no problem or pretend that they are morally superior. We have our share of incest, rape and wife abuse.

No society can claim the higher moral ground and yet we still delude ourselves about the superiority of Asian morality. Counterfeiting, illegal software, intellectual theft and blatant disregard for business ethics are endemic in this part of the world.

In closing, for those who harp on the so called pornographic and titillating videos, have a look at some television programmes - for example Sheena, Cleopatra 2025 and Baywatch - which are nothing more than displays of flesh.

Don't get me wrong; I am not advocating banning them. All I am saying is, do not be hypocrites.