The shocking photos and video of last week's whippings in Indonesia's Aceh province have refocused attention on a serious problem within Asean. On the eve of the Asean community becoming an economic union, a woman and five men were caned in public in Banda Aceh. Four were whipped for gambling and a couple were caned for "indecency". Such barbarity has no place in a modernising and progressive Asean Community (AC), which was formed to bring prosperity.
The whippings on a platform set up in front of the Baiturrahim Mosque were presented in the media as a devolution of local Indonesian law to sharia, or Islamic law. It is known in Aceh as qanan. As part of the peace deal with Aceh-based separatist rebels a decade ago, the central government in Jakarta agreed to cede many powers to the provincial government, including some concerning law enforcement.
The penalty of whipping is carried out in other parts of the Southeast Asian community, but ironically in Muslim-dominated Indonesia, secular law does not permit it other than in Aceh. Nadhlatul Ulama, the world's largest Islamic group with 50 million Indonesia members, forbids corporal punishment, and in due course it condemned last week's whippings.
The sad news, however, is that despite raised emotions and controversy, these latest whippings in Aceh are not an isolated occurrence. The highly secular governments of Malaysia and Singapore not only permit caning, but encourage it.
Singapore law allows caning for more than 30 legal offences, some of them so minor that they are not even actionable in other countries. In many of these crimes a brutal thrashing is mandatory. In 2012, the last year for which complete statistics are available, Singapore judges handed down 2,203 caning sentences -- 1,070 against foreigners.
Every expert knows that corporal punishment is merely vindictive, with no effect on crime prevention or recidivism. Like the latest enforcement in Aceh, however, the governing authorities support it with the attitude of "they asked for it, they deserve it".
Corporal punishment must be witnessed to be believed, and these days many internet sites allow such views. In Malaysia and Singapore, convicts are tied firmly to a frame, stripped from the waist down, and whipped with a flexible rod. Usually, the caning breaks the skin, leaving ugly gashes and brutal welts. Often, the victims must be taken to a hospital.
Aceh's brutal religious authorities who whipped a couple -- aged 20 and 23 -- for khaliwat, or "affectionate contact" by an unmarried couple, have put the spotlight on this mediaeval practice. Such brutality practised within the new, modern Asean Community needs to be highlighted if it is to be wiped out.
The unity of the 10-member Asean bloc is going to be tested in reaching an agreement on outlawing such wretched behaviour. The image of Asean as a bold and forthright community of substance and vitality will be important if the grouping is to succeed as a global and social force. At the very least, member countries which oppose corporal punishment must speak out.
Countries and provinces which support state brutality must continue to be named and shamed in the public eye until they relent and outlaw this potent symbol of repression.
The of Asean community has too much potential for its citizens to profit from its resources and growing accumulation of wealth and living standards. Caning does not fit with that image.