Malaysians should admit that we have all given the ‘one finger salute’ every now and then when our choler is at its limit. And of course, some of us will resort to curses and shouts of ridicule as well.

However, do these constitute a crime?

Of course not.

Media reports have now surfaced that activist and lawyer Siti Kasim is about to be brought in for questioning by the police for her ‘middle finger’ waving at a forum discussing sharia law.

Personally, I think she handled it in the best way possible, if everyone bothered to watch the video. Here is a woman in a roomful of men, discussing a religion where everyone is deemed equal, with only two women in the audience, without a single representative from their gender, discussing legal actions that affect all of us.

That is to be admired; instead, Siti was heckled, jeered and some men even tried to shut her down for bothering to ask a question.

Thus, the middle finger was extended for the men who cannot seem to allow a woman to speak her piece.

Somehow, this is a crime? Why?

As I’ve said before, being rude is not a crime. Offending the feelings of others is also not a crime.

If you feel offended, you might as well unload at a mamak over an iced coffee (cheaper than Nescafé) to your friends. Or get a punching bag.

Why on earth are there Malaysians going to the police for simply being offended? The police are not your mother, father or even teachers and headmaster for you to go complain about your feelings every time you get offended by someone.

In this sense, I can understand why Cenbet is asking for the police to take action against people filing trifling police reports, but let us take it even further. I have an idea for the inspector-general of police and the Royal Malaysian Police Force.

If the person lodging a report of being offended - this is other than a violent act, robbery, theft, or even an accident or loss for that matter - cannot even specify the legal basis of their complaint, arrest the person lodging the report.

After all, we have enough lawyers out there willingly giving advice for free through the press and through pro bono work, thus not needing to bother opening a law book ourselves.

‘The police force would be very busy’

Because honestly, I would expect our police force - specifically the district of Shah Alam which is interviewing Siti Kasim tonight - would be very busy.

Other than investigating a middle finger, this police district headquarters are also handling attempted break ins in Section 7, car accidents from multiple locations judging by the number of tow trucks with damaged cars on Persiaran Kayangan, and even late night racing along the same road.

Personally knowing Siti Kasim, I can vouch for a few things since knowing her. My initial interaction with her was with her telling me to be housed in Kamunting for supporting the Internal Security Act (ISA). We get along just fine now.

At the same time, she is an advocate for the rights of our indigenous population, the Orang Asal community. Be it the death of six kids in Pos Tohoi who ran away from school after being intimidated, even to the barricade against logging companies and the assistance during the Kelantan floods, she has done more for this community that it puts the parties supposedly responsible for their welfare to shame.

She advocates freedom of speech unless it is against the law, as we saw with the Ibrahim Ali asking people to burn Malay language Bibles a few years back. I supported her then since we have a Christian population which communicates using our national language.

Thus, I ask again, why arrest someone for a rude gesture? Or even with Jeff Ooi, a rude tweet?

If rudeness begets rudeness then fine, be rude.

It isn’t criminal to say and do rude things to get your point across, be it waving your butts in front of someone’s house or even giving chauvinist males a middle finger.

But when you go so far as to threaten death, rape and even a harsh beating up, that is already criminal intimidation. And if such threats are made real as the red shirts kicking the head of a Bersih convoy motorcyclist, it is already assault and battery.

Hopefully some young professionals out there based in Shah Alam who go about quoting Voltaire, now know the difference.