Catholic Bishop Dr Paul Tan Chee Ing described as “grotesque” the case of mistaken identity that saw an Indonesian Christian woman accused of khalwat in a syariah court in Penang and denounced as “reprehensible” the conclusion of a deputy minister that non-Malays under-report incidents of statutory rape from moral laxity.

“Both episodes demonstrate the dangers of drawing insupportable conclusions from shaky evidence,” opined the head of the Catholic Church in the Malacca-Johor diocese.

“In other words, look before you leap,” counselled the Jesuit-trained prelate, in remarks on the plight of Halimah, an Indonesian Christian saddled with a charge of khalwat, and on Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar’s opinion aired in Parliament that reports of statutory rape were low among non-Malays because of sexual permissiveness.

Halimah, like most Indonesians who go by one name, was working in a reflexology centre in Penang when syariah officers arrested her for committing close proximity with a male person who was not related to her.

Wan Junaidi’s comments were uttered in Parliament in the course of his explaining statistics purportedly showing the higher incidence of statutory rape among Malays as compared to non-Malays.

The Batang Lupar MP said Malays viewed rape as morally offensive which was why they tended to report its incidence, whereas non-Malays held it with much less gravity, hence the under-reporting.

“It is a truism that people are often cruel not from avowed malice but from outraged righteousness,” observed the bishop.

An unlettered Indonesian who struggles to express herself in Bahasa Malaysia, Halimah’s case of ostensibly mistaken identity has evoked sympathy from Malaysians, while Wan Junaidi’s remarks have drawn criticism and demands that he apologise.

Syariah authorities are said to be loath to acknowledge error if in doing so their jurisdiction is disclosed as fallible, while Wan Junaidi, a lawyer by training, has allegedly leaped from arbitrary fact to insupportable conclusion.

“In matters concerning race and religion, it is best that public officers refrain from pulling conclusive threads from weak evidence,” advised Bishop Paul Tan.