YOURSAY 'A 12-year-old needs her parents' consent for school field trips and for surgery procedures, but it's okay for them to have consensual sex with adults?'

Statutory rape: 'Can a child consent to sex?'

Blind Freddo: It would appear that there is no such thing as an age of consent ruling in Malaysia. If there was, there would be no such thing as a debate on whether a young person could give consent or not.

This is more proof of how little the government thinks about Malaysians... unless of course, it is to repress them.

Headhunter: Like the government, the judiciary is sick. There's a difference when two underage teenagers are sexually involved. But in these two recent cases, the perpetrators are adults while the two girls raped are mere children.

In the later case, one is really surprised that a woman judge has shown little compassion for a very young girl. Both cases should be classified as paedophilia.

The judges have shown so much compassion for the perpetrators but not the victims. And why is the attorney-general (AG) and the minister for women affairs so silent on these cases?

Cannon: "Can a child consent to sex?" I wonder whether the Court of Appeal judges thought about this. Would they think the same way they did if the victim who is bonked is one of their daughters?

Tulin: Two oxymorons in the current judicial pronouncements: firstly, the judgment of the Court of Appeal chief who, after saying that the convict shall be spared the jail sentence for his bright future ahead, quickly added that his decision shall not in anyway be construed that child rapists in future shall be spared the jail sentence. This is an oxymoron in the binding precedent doctrine.

Secondly, the Session Court judgment in Chuah Guan Jiu's case. Having noted that the offender was a Form Two dropout, yet he had a bright future ahead and should be spared the jail sentence. Why all these nonsense?

Kairos: It appears to me that they released a national bowler for statutory rape on the grounds of good behaviour and then followed up with releasing a 22-year-old guy for almost the same reason, adding that in the second case, it was consensual.

I ask, since when in the annals of law has judgment been swayed by external behaviour or the punishment for statutory rape been set for consensual sex?

The judiciary in this country is setting a very dangerous precedence for the future because when the law is bent and rules are broken by the very people who are supposed to be the guardians of the law, all hell can break loose.

I shudder to think that we have sunk so low in setting the moral standards of the nation.

NuckinFuts: Our judiciary does not appear to have a 'bright future' - we have dim judges who do not understand what consent is. A 12-year-old needs her parents' consent for school field trips and for surgery procedures, but it's okay for them to have consensual sex with adults?

Mirror on the Wall: A poignant question that should have been raised by the Court of Appeal and the entire judiciary - "can a child give consent to sex?" My initial reaction was "aiyo... does this even have to be asked?"

Where, has all that legal education gone to? A first-year law student will tell there has been manifest injustice in the sentencing in these two cases.

When these cases are eventually reported in the law journals, I wonder what their regional brethren judges will think of this dictum? Probably "aiyo".

Abasir: What has now become crystal clear is that child rapists can, from now on, use the 'bright future' defence. And there will be defence lawyers who will profit from this.

As for the child victims... well, they gave their consent without putting up a fight, didn't they? Justice in Malaysia is as perverted as the politics.

CHKS: The argument that the 12-year-old girl has "consented" to the sexual act is extremely flawed.

Can a 12-year-old truly make a volitional, consensual decision without any form of coercion? How does the judge know that? Is the judge a psychiatrist as well who have examined and tested the mental capacity and maturity of the child?

Even if, IF, the child really has the mental capacity, if she has truly comprehended the shameful and embarrassing consequences she will have to bear in future, including unwed pregnancy, single parenting or unsatisfying marriage, do you think she would then have consented?

Consent does not just mean she is not resisting to the sexual act. Consent means even after truly comprehending all the possible consequences I can think of, I still make that decision.

The argument of the perpetrator being a dropout and is not able to trick the victim is disgustingly flawed. Dropouts are not mentally handicapped or retarded. If he is mentally retarded, he won't be an electrician.

Fight Injustice: A precedent has been set and has to apply to all - a grave mistake.

Conmen: The courts had failed us ordinary citizens in protecting our young and minors from sex predators. Consent or no consent, sex with a minor is still a crime and punishment must be meted out in the public interest.

Onyourtoes: If minors are capable of consent, why enact statutory rape law? Please don't regress the discussion to two minors having sex here. We are talking about an adult having sex with a minor and the presumption is the minor, even consent to it, may not have known the consequences of her actions.

By the way, what is consent, hotshot lawyers? Could the consent be given under subtle duress, out of ignorance, out of curiosity and being dependent or idolising as in the case of that bowler?

I think we are not short of nincompoop lawyers in this country as well.

Gen. Half Track: Hurray! Good news for child rapists. Now the courts have declared an open season for you. Don't forget to send a thank you cards to the ‘learned judges'.

CHKS: These two back-to-back cases of statutory rape perpetrators escaping jail on the basis of "bright future" is extremely worrying.

In my estimation, many of those who have committed the offence of statutory rape would be young men, which means in many subsequent cases, there would be a high chance that the judge would use "bright future" as a premise.

How bright is bright then? What is your cut-off age? Is 40 years still considered having a bright future? After all, people say life begins after 40.

Myop101: Imagine children consenting on their own to enter into contract, getting a loan or getting married! Gosh.

The whole society will be thrown haywire because this judiciary decided to set dangerous precedents without considering other legal enactments established by the legislature, which take into account whether a minor is deemed legally unfit or capable of making some decisions.

Bamboo: The judge in Penang has to give a similar verdict to Chuah Guan Jiu. Otherwise, how to explain the lenient kid glove verdict given to national bowler Nor Afizal Azizan?

James1067: Twelve or even 13-year-old girls really do not have the knowledge of the consequences of sex - what it may do to her personal life in the future as to her status in society, the risk of pregnancy and the trauma when she realises later the mistake she made.

At that age, they can be easily misled into the act of sex, and the facts of life is that the female is the one that pays the higher price in the eyes of society. They have to be protected from these perverts who are old enough to realise what they are doing.

Chee Hoe Siew: No wonder, the crime rate is so low in Malaysia. It is not because there are fewer crimes, but because crime has been redefined.

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