Oral sex law may be changed

SINGAPORE may abolish its law banning oral sex between men and women following a recent uproar over the jailing of a police officer for engaging in it with a teenage girl. Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee told Parliament yesterday that the law was being reexamined as part of a review of the Penal Code. The review would be completed in two to three months. He said current social norms would be taken into account and added: `One option being considered is to decriminalise consensual oral sex between a male and female so long as it is done in private and both of them are above 16 years of age.` In November, Annis Abdullah, 27, was jailed for two years for receiving consensual oral sex from a girl said to be 16 but later declared to be 15 and a minor by the Home Affairs and Law ministries. In the meantime, many readers wrote to The Straits Times Forum Page to protest against the punishment, which also created a buzz in Internet chatrooms. They questioned whether oral sex, in this day and age, should be considered an offence and said the law was unrealistic. It prompted Mr R. Ravindran (Marine Parade GRC) to ask if, in view of changing social norms, the law on sexual offences in Singapore would be reviewed. In his reply, Associate Professor Ho pointed out that the law was used mostly to prosecute cases involving minors, or mentally and physically handicapped people. There had not been any prosecution for consensual oral sex in private between a male and female for many years, he added. However, his reply indicated that homosexual oral sex was likely to stay illegal.