Morality Snoop Squad

The Sunday Times today headlined a story “Morality snoop squad up and running” and with the sub-head “Watch out!”

Many of us of course, remember the controversy surrounding this initiative of Melaka 4B’s Pasukan Gerak Khas when it was first announced.

Apparently, despite many Malaysians, including ministers, having voiced their misgivings about such a plan (“….to use youths to spy on couples and report their findings to religious authorities…..”), it was officially launched last Wednesday by Melaka’s Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.

State 4B deputy president, Hassan Rahman, was quoted in the Sunday Times thus –

“We have started out with trying to tackle social problems affecting Malays first," he said. "We eventually plan to expand our activities to report on other problems like illegal racing and drug addiction." “Hassan added the movement would also carry out a recruitment drive to get non-Malay youths involved.

I am no legal eagle but the loyar buruk in me yearns to ask some questions.

In the first place, is it legal for groups of youth to wander all over Melaka to snoop? There is number (of persons) and common intention to perform an act – snooping. As the “Snoop Squad” has no legal standing, they would in a way be an illegal assembly when they gather together (we can expect the crowd to be more than 4 persons) whether at a house or at the parks and all.

Then, what about their act of snooping? Again no legal standing. They are not spies or intelligence officers on the State or local council payrolls. In such circumstances they are nothing but invaders of people’s privacy, and I think to act like that is a civil wrong.

And when you think deeper about these snooping acts, it can give rise to all sorts of problems.

What if some “bad apples” among the members of the squad see an opportunity for blackmail in their snooping acts?

What happens if a couple spied on, realized they are being watched and just walked away? Will the squad members just let them do so (like in the case mentioned in the story of a couple spotted in a secluded area), as they have no power to arrest or enforce the morality code? Or will they try to restrain the couple from making a quick getaway until the appropriate authorities arrived? And we all know what can happen when “very enthusiastic” (youths) take the task of enforcement on to themselves.

I am troubled by all these possibilities.

But more so, by the silence that greeted the launch of the Morality Snoop Squad, on the part of the powers that be, as if it has been sanctioned.