Sex in the city drags you down
It was as though Singapore was invaded by a type of virus that destroyed human immunity against sexual misconduct, leading a newspaper to nickname 2012 'the Year of Lust'.
SINGAPORE, which still bans Playboy magazine, is moving into 2013 after going through one of its hottest years for sex scandals.
Few old-timers can remember living through a more torrid period such as this that has dragged in so many prominent, high-profile people both from within and outside the government.
It was as though Singapore was invaded by a type of virus in the air that destroyed human immunity against sexual misconduct.
It spread through the city, striking down young and middle-aged Singaporeans – from Members of Parliament, elite civil servants and business executives to cleaners and lorry drivers.
Sexual exposes dragged in personalities such as university professors, lawyers, police officers and prominent educators, as well as teenage boys and girls.
Dozens of high-society people were charged in court for having sex with an underaged prostitute.
Also on trial were several teachers, both men and women, for sleeping with their underaged students.
Two teachers were prosecuted for using a hidden camera in the school toilets to film female students.
In fact, hardly a week passed without a case of sexual misconduct – big or small – making the headlines.
On the day before Christmas, a taxi driver reportedly watched pornographic films on his mobile phone with a female passenger on board.
Two days later, a member of public filmed a young couple getting intimate at a car-park rooftop within full view of the surrounding flats.
It led a Chinese-language newspaper to nickname 2012 "the Year of Lust".
The year ended with the political downfall of two young promising politicians – one from the opposition and the other from the ruling People's Action Party (PAP).
Both were married men whose extra-marital affairs with female colleagues were exposed within 10 months of each other.
One was the Speaker of the House and promising PAP Member of Parliament, Michael Palmer, who resigned from all party and political posts earlier this month.
Palmer's other woman was Laura Ong, a constituency staffer of the PAP-related People's Association (PA), who frequently worked with Palmer.
Surprisingly, it was the PA that revealed her identity, forcing her to quit. Their romantic short messages were also revealed.
In one of the messages, Ong complained to the Speaker: "You may not have noticed, but every time we meet on Mondays, the kisses are lesser... the time we spend getting intimate is also lesser."
Earlier in February, opposition Workers Party (WP) treasurer and MP Yaw Shin Leong resigned after his sexual affair with a party colleague was exposed.
But the biggest shock to Singaporeans was the arrest of two of the country's top security chiefs on sex-for-favour corruption charges.
They were ex-director of Central Narcotics Bureau Ng Boon Gay and former head of Singapore Civil Defence Force Peter Lim.
Singapore's Corrupt Practices and Investigation Bureau alleged that they had obtained sexual favours from a female employee of two information-technology vendors in exchange for contracts.
Ng's trial is ongoing, while the other is due to begin next month.
Their stories rocked this city, which prides itself on its corruption-free reputation and sexual and business probity.
Then came a bigger shock, a case that occupied a large part of the court calendar for the year.
More than 80 people were arrested for having sex with an underaged prostitute who was arranged over the web by a syndicate.
So far, 51 have been put on a series of high-profile trials, including a high number of prominent people.
It bagged Howard Shaw, the unlikely grandson of Runme Shaw and an environmental activist.
Others were a Swiss banker, an Indonesian businessman who had just got married and a bagful of lawyers, police officers and academicians.
Meanwhile, a district court will begin hearing another sex scandal case on Jan 15 – the sex-for-grades trial of Law Professor Tey Tsung Hang.
He was charged with having sex with 23-year-old undergraduate Darinne Ko Wen Hui on several occasions, allegedly in exchange for helping her grades.
Even liberal-minded Singaporeans were taken aback by the staggering number of prominent people who fell foul of temptation.
It would probably take a classroom of sociologists and psychiatrists to figure out why this is happening in Singapore now, after Lee Kuan Yew had imposed years of enforced propriety.
One obvious sign is that morality has been on the decline, which can be partly blamed on easy access to digital pornography.
This trend runs contrary to the country's strict sexual upbringing.
Oral and anal sex remains illegal and public nudity and homosexuality are frowned upon in official circles.
The scandals have caught many Singaporeans by surprise, given the fact that for years now, surveys had shown that Singaporeans ranked lowly in the frequency of their sexual encounters.
I remember filing stories of Durex grading Singaporeans as the second most under-sexed people in Asia, next only to the Japanese.
Worse for the nation is the fact that the procreation rate is one of the lowest in the world.
The latest study by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, however, showed improvements – Singaporeans are having sex about five times a week on average.
The sexual emancipation of women is obvious. They are having sex about as often and want to increase the frequency to about seven monthly romps, Pfizer said.
Despite their relative wealth, Singaporean men are a bit sex-starved, it concluded.
The governing party is evidently concerned about the prospect of more extra-marital activities within its ranks, which may have explained why PA itself revealed the identity of the woman involved with the Speaker.
"It could be a message to other women to leave their PAP men alone," one observer said.
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