COMMENT | The two Muslim women who were caught being intimate inside a car recently were convicted in the Kuala Terengganu Syariah High Court and publicly caned.

The case compelled human rights activists and many Malaysians to react with outrage. Some of the choice comments from netizens include:

"Appalled by this grave violation of human rights,” "Sexual acts between two consenting adults should not be criminalised,” “Public caning is one of the most degrading, cruel forms of sentencing,” “Caning is far from modern civilised laws. Are we going backwards to the medieval era?”

First of all, just to be clear, I'd like to state that I am against all kinds of discrimination (including against the LGBT community), and against all forms of corporal punishment (including caning).

However, as I dwell on the case and read about people’s opinions on news portals and social media, I am confused as to why people are so upset over the couple being caned for wanting to make love in the car.

You see, indecent behaviour in public has been an offence in Malaysia for donkey’s years. Couples have been prosecuted for being 'intimate' in parked cars, on the balconies of their homes and behind the bushes of public parks. I don’t think I need to trouble myself quoting specific examples here, as I am sure they are all just a click away.

And unlike the two women whose identities are being protected to save them the embarrassment, many other couples who have been prosecuted over the years for indecent behaviour have had their full names published in media, and in some cases, their images too. Yet, no one had any qualms about their tarnished reputations.

Many netizens who are today standing tall, lashing out at the recent abuse of human rights – by claiming that the two women who were in love should have been left alone instead of being dragged into the spotlight – happen to be the very same people who found it in their hearts to ridicule similar incidents involving couples of different genders.

Remember the case of a middle-aged ‘datin’ who was caught with her lover inside a parked car three years ago? Many had fun with the incident – with comments ranging from “Why didn't ‘datin’ check into a five-star hotel?” to “Datuk must be suffering from erectile dysfunction.”

Yet here we are chanting about human rights and calling for authorities to stop poking their noses where it doesn’t belong.

Seriously, why should two women making love inside a parked car be left alone when we can’t be bothered about a man and a woman being punished for doing the same thing?

Are homosexual couples any different from heterosexual couples that they deserve a special exception?

Caning in Malaysia

Like being convicted for indecent behaviour in public, punishing wrongdoers by means of caning isn’t something new.

Caning has been used as a supplementary punishment to imprisonment since 19th century colonial Malaya. From embezzlement, robbery, incest, kidnapping and rape, quite a number of crimes are punishable by caning.

In 2010, London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International urged the Malaysian government to “end the practice of judicial caning, which subjects thousands of people each year to systematic torture and ill-treatment, leaving them with permanent physical and psychological scars."

Today, even immigration violations such as illegal entry into the country is subject to caning. Presumably, tens of thousands of refugees and migrant workers have been caned in our beloved Malaysia.

Yet, we Malaysians seem to be quite tolerant with caning all this while. Why is that?

What happened to our chest thumping call for justice and human rights? Does it take a backseat while we figure out which cause is the most trendy for us to champion?

Barbaric form of punishment

According to Amnesty International, Malaysian prisons give special training to their caning officers. The procedure is quite simple. The ‘wrongdoers’ are tied down to a wooden trestle and caned on their bare buttocks with a half-inch-thick rattan cane wielded by a trained officer. The canes are moistened so they don't fray.

The first blow with a metre-long cane swung with both hands at high speed rips into the person’s naked skin, pulps the fatty tissue below, and leaves scars that extend to muscle fibre.

The reason it is so painful is because the subsequent blows are wielded on open wounds. The pain is so severe that victims often go into shock and lose consciousness before the caning is finished.

Of course, the act of caning is carried out differently on men and women, or under civil and syariah law. But the fact remains that many individuals have been subjected to caning in Malaysia for many years, and there was little issue in tolerating this so-called conservative practice all this time.

And I wonder, for a society that seems to generally support human rights, why did we have to wait for two women to be caned with a thin cane on the back with their clothes on (which most likely is much gentler compared to those who get their skin broken and permanently scarred) to make a stand against corporal punishment?

And if corporal punishment is something we frown upon on the basis that it is not a suitable punishment in this modern era, what about capital punishment?

Malaysia practices the death penalty particularly for those convicted of trafficking drugs and murder. Since 1960, hundreds of people have been executed in Malaysia. Even today, many are on death row.

Still, we seem to have no qualms about murdering another human being by hanging them, yet we seem to think caning is a medieval practice, a cruel form of punishment. Really?

Is this case special because it involves LGBT persons?

Technically, we generally accept indecent behaviour in public as an offence. And we generally accept public caning as a form of punishment. Then why is all hell breaking loose because two women were caned for this very reason?

Are we furious because the two individuals caned are both females and members of the LGBT community? Would we be more accepting if those caned were a couple of different gender? Perhaps, because back in 2010 three women and four men were caned in Malaysia after being found guilty of extramarital sex – and little hoo-ha was made over it.

If the two women who recently caned had been intimate in a private space, say a room or a house, do you think they would have been prosecuted? I don't, because there are many same-sex couples who do share intimate moments behind closed doors in every corner of the country – and to the best of my knowledge, no authorities have knocked on their doors, dragged them out and publicly shamed them like what’s being done towards many Muslim couples of different genders.

I get it, being pro-LGBT is seen as something trendy nowadays. But let’s not get carried away and turn blind to other issues.

While the LGBT community wants to be accepted and treated like everyone else, here we are putting a spotlight on this case while ignoring many other form of human rights abuses. Is that fair and equal?

I am not saying this case involving two lesbians is not an important cause to protest. I am merely reminding us not to forget other cases which deserve our attention equally much.

And I am not saying the two women deserved to be caned for their indecency in public. I am merely reminding us of many others who are caned in silence while we proudly put on our rainbow badges.

Think about it.

FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a growing media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a regular director, a struggling producer, a self-acclaimed photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.