The recent move by PAS to ban bikinis and the calls to inflict corporal punishment for incest is nothing more than an obsession with form over substance.

To believe that the issue of public morality can be dealt with by looking into the past especially in Islamic practices is nothing short of a deep insecure obsession with form and refusal to understand and tackle the changes of the real world.

While Islamic practice calls for covering of the aurat (body), the spirit behind it is modesty in character not in form. Banning bikinis will not change the characters that hide behind clothings. Not dealing with the human body in a healthy and enlightened understanding can lead to perversion of the worst kind.

In fact, a poor understanding of the human body and sex is what leads to incest and corporal punishment will do little to curb it. It is not surprising the criminals are all so young (70 percent under 17) because the main problem is that they have really half-baked ideas about sex, their bodies and their priorities.

Young people are filled with incredible challenges today and its just plain lazy parenting and bad public policy to look for easy answers in banning this and that and inflicting heavy pains as punishment. Its not recognising a complex problem and dealing with it as a society.

This obsession with the form rather than the spirit behind is what is holding back Islamic reform. Modesty is a characteristic best dealt with in honest education and guidance. Banning pieces of clothing not only does nothing but interferes with peoples private rights and properties while at the same time drive the issue and understanding underground.

When will Malaysians stop looking to the past for their answer? When will we look into the spirit of our core values and forge ahead in the age of globalisation and sweeping technological changes? The answer lies in the spirit of substance not in the obsession and weakness for bodily forms.