In the old days of rough-and-tumble Southeast Asian politics, political players might attempt to smear their adversaries by calling them a communist, Western lackey, Vietnamese puppet or other such nasty labels. As wealth came to the region in the 1980s and 90s, it was just as effective to smear political rivals by accusing them of corruption.
But a new weapon has emerged in today's regional political landscape: the sex tape. Growing political and religious conservatism, particularly in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia, combined with politicians who preach moral values during the day and sin by night, and the abundance of mobile phones with video function have come together in a 'perfect storm' of dirty tricks stretching from northern Thailand to the Indonesian archipelago.
In the past few weeks, senior politicians in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur were accused of starring in separate racy home-made videos with unidentified female companions.
Anis Matta, deputy Speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives and secretary general of the conservative Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), vehemently denied being the man who appeared in a bathroom sex clip posted on Twitter on February 28.
On Tuesday, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim filed a police report over a 21-minute online video that allegedly featured him having sex with an unknown woman.
Both men have claimed the sex tapes were part of a dirty-tricks campaign by their political enemies within the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia to smear their reputations.
'It's a reflection of the increased Islamisation and conservatism within society in both Malaysia and Indonesia, which has also engendered a high level of hypocrisy, combined with the proliferation of technology,' said Karim Raslan, a Malaysian newspaper columnist who divides his time between Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
