Carnal Intercourse against the order of nature

Act 574 of the Penal Code

377a. Any person who has sexual connection with another person by the introduction of the penis into the anus or mouth of the other person is said to commit carnal intercourse against the order of nature.

Explanation – Penetration is sufficient to constitute the sexual connection necessary to the offense described in this section.

Punishment for committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature

377b. Whoever voluntarily commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to twenty years, and shall also be liable to whipping.

Committing carnal intercourse against the order of nature without consent, etc.

377c. Whoever voluntarily commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature on another person without the consent, or against the will, of the other person, or by putting the other person in fear of death to the person or any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years and not more than twenty years, and shall also be liable to whipping.

The subject of sodomy and oral sex came up in Twitter yesterday, triggered by talks about the recent win of Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek in his bid for his party’s presidency.

There were twits comparing his situation to that of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the Opposition pact in Malaysia. The former had his sexcapade recorded without his knowledge and distributed to the public which led to his resignation as Health Minister on 2 January 2008. In the clip, it was reported that Dr Chua was given fellatio by his female companion. Dr Chua denied that he was involved in the production of the sex clip but he admitted that the man in the clip was him.

If you are not familiar with Dr Chua, he is a member of Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a political party in Malaysia which is a component of the political coalition that currently forms the government, known as National Front or Barisan Nasional in Malay.

Dr Chua was not charged in court for the fellatio he got and he has on 28 March 2010 made a stunning political comeback by winning MCA’s presidency election.

On the other side, we have Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim(DSAI), who is currently being tried for sodomy. A charge that DSAI vehemently denied having committed and the prosecutor has yet to produce conclusive evidence against him. Coincidently, DSAI is the leader of the Opposition pact in Malaysia.

Therefore, the chagrin of DSAI’s supporters and also Non-Partisans alike are understandable.

Anyway, the purpose for my blogging is not to discuss on Dr Chua and DSAI. The twit conversations on the matter roused my curiosity on the particular law that deal with this crime. So I started asking around and googled the act.

End result, I found section 377a/b/c of Act 574 from the Attorney General’s website.

Initially, I thought that our law did not cover Oral Sex, only Sodomy. Section 377a clarified that for me. It is defined in no uncertain terms,

…introduction of the penis into the anus or mouth…

In this juncture, I came upon an interesting oddity. We all know that Oral Sex came in the form of Fellatio and Cunnilingus. However, Section 377a has limited the crime to Fellatio only. Gender discrimination? :) One would think that the meaning of carnal intercourse against the order of nature would include Cunnilingus or maybe perhaps inserting one’s tongue into a vagina is very natural?

377a also limit the prosecution of person who participate in this sex act to the recipient of the fellatio i.e. the man who has his penis pampered,

Any person who has sexual connection with another person by the introduction of the penis into the anus or mouth of the other person..

If it had read as “Any person who has sexual connection with another person by the introduction of the penis into the anus or mouth”, that would have implicated both parties.

377c seems to address the punishment of the one giving the fellatio,

Whoever voluntarily commits carnal intercourse against the order of nature on another person without the consent, or against the will, of the other person, or by putting the other person in fear of death to the person or any other person

However, this is only in the case of the recipient of the fellatio partaking in the sex act involuntarily.

Therefore, it is okay to give fellatio on someone provided it is voluntarily but if you are receiving it, you are in deep shit and women can continue having their oral sex provided it is done on them and not them giving oral sex to a man, otherwise, the man will be in deep shit.