‘Soi Lek faces oral sex probe’ screamed the headline of a local newspaper recently. Former health minister Dr Chua Soi Lek’s sex video clip has come back to haunt him.

His recent visit to the PJ police station is much more than just ‘visiting an old friend’. It is now public knowledge that he was hauled up for investigation for allegedly engaging in oral sex - a criminal offence punishable under Section 377 of the Penal Code.

This Soi Lek episode has left an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Amidst the recriminations and the sleaze, it is wrong not to draw some conclusions from this experience of a political leader tainted by a sexual scandal.

It is said: ‘Ability will enable a man to get to the top, but character is the only thing that keeps him from falling off’.

Although much about the political process has changed since the tsunami of the March 8, 2008 general election, the fundamentals remain the same. Character of politicians count.

Soi Lek’s DVD tape of his sexual gymnastics in the Batu Pahat hotel room and the allegation of engaging in oral sex has certainly tainted his character.

This leads to the important question: Should political leaders caught in sex scandals, or who have had brushes with the law, be judged on standards of morality or on their ability to deliver?

History is laced with public figures caught in sex scandals to their great personal detriment and shame. Most of them faded into obscurity.

It is established that public figures do not, and indeed, cannot live by the same set of rules as everyone else. Behaviour that is acceptable in an ordinary private citizen may not be so in one who is supposed to be an exemple of dignity, integrity and decorum.

Soi Lek’s sexual proclivities are unacceptable. He is now an unacceptable role model for Malaysians young and old, both liberal and conservative from all backgrounds.

To right-thinking Malaysians, he is unfit for political leadership both in MCA and BN. He is unfit to hold public office, be it as a senator or for a ministerial post.

Soi Lek’s supporters’ claim that since he had been elected by the popular vote of the central delegates at the MCA election, he has therefore earned a right to hold public office and should be offered a senatorship and a ministerial post.

With the MCA bent on moral uprightness, Soi Lek’s hopes are indeed dim or there are none at all. With his tainted character, the holding of a public office is untenable.

He may have been accepted by the party’s central delegates, but the delegates do not speak for all Malaysians. A recent financial daily highlighted that ‘when you hold public office you have to measure yourself against a high moral standard’.

There is also a vast difference between acceptance by the party and acceptance by the public at large. Soi Lek was elected by the MCA central delegates. It is an election in a private organisation. When it comes to a public office, the majority of the people outside would have the final say.

Further, he had resigned as a member of Parliament and the federal constitution bars him from contesting for five years. Appointing him as a senator may be an abuse of power and an abuse of due process to circumvent the provisions of the federal constitution.

Soi Lek’s self-fulfilling prophecy of an EGM drive is merely a red herring aimed at overshadowing the bad press publicity of his sexual scandal.

Right-thinking MCA members, delegates, and the public at large must not fall for Soi Lek’s selfish personal agenda and greed for power and position. Politicians should remember ‘that which is morally wrong cannot be politically right’.

Let’s us not play the game of saying one thing and doing another. The MCA’s disciplinary board should not drag its feet. It should act justly and expeditiously to put an end to this morally sordid affair that has grievously tarnished MCA’s image.

The police must also act swiftly to avoid accusations of selective prosecution.