COMMENT Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin is right about not giving 23-year-old child porn collector Nur Fitri Azmeer Nordin a second chance .

Cruel as it may seem, if the Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) proceeds with its decision, without the intervention of the education minister, then political activist Fahmi Zainol should be allowed the same chance to continue his studies at Universiti Malaya.

On one hand, Fahmi was upholding the voices of democracy in a democratic nation, but Nur Fitri represents just the opposite of what good moral values are.

Nur Fitri is the equivalent to Alvin Tan ( photo ), who is now a fugitive and never given a second chance. Tan was dropped from his self-sponsored studies in an institution of higher learning in Singapore, but Nur Fitri is now given a new welcome to a Malaysian institution, after his scholarship was cancelled.

There is simply no reason why Mara should any more waste public funds on convicted paedophiles like Nur Fitri, who was convicted and sentenced to nine months’ jail.

On the international arena, Nur Fitri has put Malaysia in a bad light, with his possession of over 30,000 videos and photographs of child pornography. Where and how he got the money to purchase some 600 pornographic videos is anyone’s guess, since he was on a Mara scholarship.

If he were to be accepted to continue his studies locally, it will be just another bad apple in the basket of fruits which will only cause the other apples to rot. Fellow students will only be asking the question, “Nothing wrong with child pornography?”

Gradually, some of them will flock together with Nur Fitri and be part of his paedophiles club. Has Mara even given a thought to this? With someone like Nur Fitri around, would you even consider sending your child to Mara?

Even activist Marina Mahathir has pointed out that paedophiles are supposed to be sent to prison, so why does Mara bother to even allow Nur Fitri to continue his studies?

As a matter of respect, Mara should heed Khairy’s tweet: “Hopefully Mara will not waste public funds. #NoSecondChance." If not, it is about time for Education Minister Muhyiddin Yasin to weigh in against Mara’s decision.

Religious school

It makes one wonder on what basis has Mara decided to give Nur Fitri a second chance. Is it because Nur Fitri is born special? What relationship does Nur Fitri with the decision-makers in Mara?

Or, is Nur Fitri related to some important politicians that we do not know about? How is it that Nur Fitri should be given the special treatment, while others would have been given the cold treatment?

Even former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has raised the same concerns when he was quoted as saying : “Now, we have a mathematician who downloads 30,000 child pornography videos because we don’t follow the Quran any more.”

Going by Dr Mahathir’s advice, Nur Fitri should be sent to a religious school instead, so that he can learn more about the Quran.

When such a decision by Mara warrants criticisms from the religious authorities including the muftis and Islamic NGOs such as Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma), I wonder why no one has even taken this up that what Nur Fitri ( photo ) needs is not higher education, but religious education instead - one that will teach him to have some higher moral grounds.

Spending three years in a religious school would do some good to Nur Fitri, rather than to send him to prison. At least, by the time Nur Fitri finishes his religious education, he would have reached a point of maturity.

Thereafter, I still wonder if anyone would entrust their children to his care, so why would the management of Mara be sympathetic to him now?

Or else, we will be producing highly educated paedophiles who will become a great influence to the young people in this country.

Time to stop dirty politics

Nur Fitri’s case may have received a lot of publicity lately but it is no secret that we are indeed trending towards a society where the young people these days are becoming more vulnerable to early sex and pornography.

Is this the result of politicians themselves being immersed with all sorts of sex-related propaganda against their political foes and using the media to attack their nemeses?

For example, we know Anwar Ibrahim was the opposition leader but he is now in prison after the Umno-led government managed to nail him down all the way to the Federal Court in what is known as Sodomy II.

This is despite the numerous questions raised about his involvement in the sodomy act, which were raised during the trial.

Even immediately after the trial, Umno-linked lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah ( photo ) revealed the details of testimony made in camera which were meant to be heard behind closed doors. According to sources, Shafee even added more spice to the story.

To date, Shafee has not been charged for contempt of court, why? Is it because Shafee has the political immunity to do what he likes? This is at the expense of the Malaysian society losing its moral ground.

During the lead up to the Permatang Pauh by-election, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi had promised another shocker . No one knows what this was supposed to be, but there were already speculations that Umno was going to play dirty once again using some other sex-related videos.

Although this was merely a speculation, people were already talking about sex-related videos. Why?

Umno has no one to blame but its own members who were so engrossed with such dirty gimmicks during the last general election, where we saw how Anwar was allegedly portrayed as having sex with a China doll.

A video specialist in Jalan Imbi told me that he could immediately tell that the video was fake because no recording these days would be done in black and white unless it was done with the purpose of hiding the details.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Johari Abdul ( photo ) had revealed that it was also possible for one to go for a make-up session in Thailand, where he himself had been given a make-over to look like the late P Ramlee.

With the increasing trend of sex-related crimes in the country, parties which purvey trumped-up sex-related propaganda should immediately put a stop to it.

It is either we stop the rot, or our morals will continue to rot to the point of no return.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.