COMMUNICATION & CONFLICT

MANAGEMENT
Assignment 1
Essay: Invasion of Privacy (Elizabeth
Wong)
February 2009

According to Shakespeare; “the purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless

reputation” in Richard II and this is particularly true because without our reputation

is a fragile thing. Once tainted, it can never be the same again. Like what Robert

DeNiro said “Reputation takes forever to build but it only takes a second to destroy”

The issue on privacy has been prevalent and also responsible for the fall of

many prominent figures. Besides influential political figures, celebrities as well as

individuals has suffered the effects of privacy. Privacy became an issue with the rise

of modern futuristic technology and the age old basic human need to know it all.

The issue on privacy would normally bring about another issue on human

rights and defamation. In Article 12 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of

Human Rights it’s stated that “Everyone is legally protected against acts of intrusion

on one’s privacy, home, honor, reputation and family”

On the other hand, under the same Declaration under Article 19, it states that

“Everyone has the right to search, obtain and disseminate thoughts and values

through any chosen medium as well as the right to free speech under any
circumstances” This is contradicting because the Article 12 protects an individual

that was in a compromising position while Article 19 protects the right of the person

with the incriminating evidence to disseminate that information.

The basic definition of defamation has been defined as the publication or a

statement that lowers a person reputation in a society that results in avoidance. Some

example of influential and public figures that was embarrassed and shunned was the

President of the United States; Bill Clinton, HK Actor; Edison Chen, Malaysian Ex

Deputy Prime Minister; Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian Health Minister;

Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek and the recent case of Selangor State Assemblywoman

for Bukit Lanjan; Elizabeth Wong.

As a women politician, Elizabeth Wong holds a lot of roles in the society.

She’s Bukit Lanjan’s assemblywoman, an executive council member for Selangor

and a one of Malaysia’s top human rights activist. In a democratic society, it is

shocking that a person’s privacy has been intruded and the society chose to view one

negative aspect instead of all the positive aspects.

The Defamation Act 1996 protects an individual’s reputation but not their

privacy and the only legal means that do is the traditional tort law but only to a

limited extent. In Elizabeth’s case, it fulfills the breach of confidence because firstly,

the information has to be private and in her case it’s the pictures of her in a

compromising position.

Secondly, the defendant obligation of privacy to the victim and this applies to

her boyfriend at that time who allegedly took the pictures and thirdly, unlawful

disclosure of the information will be considered as a breach of confidentiality.

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 As a conservative nation, Elizabeth Wong who is a successful 37 years old

and still unmarried is the perfect idol that women would want to look up to. Not only

educated in Australia, she proved that a woman can achieve success without a man.

Because of this privacy issue, many women’s organizations supported her. After her

scandal, she is now being compared to the scandalous wife of the President of

France; Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Her scandal has caused many organizations to fight amongst each other about

privacy and female sexuality dividing the liberals and the conservatives. The liberals

defended her privacy stating that it’s her right to do whatsoever she wants in the

privacy of her home even sleeping semi naked while the conservatives argued that

she deserved it and a single women shouldn’t even be in the same room as her then

boyfriend who allegedly took the photos and distributed it and that she shouldn’t be

sleeping semi naked.

The case on privacy followed the exact conflict cycle that Rubin (1993)

mentioned from escalation, selective perception, self-fulfilling prophecy stalemate

and de-escalation. According to Rubin, escalation means that the root cause of the

fight evolves into something bigger with so many issues piling on top of the cause

until it comes to a time where no one actually remembers the root cause of the issue.

In Elizabeth’s case, the fight on privacy evolved to a fight for feminism,

human rights, conservative set, liberal set, women’s organizations, lawyers

questioning the legal system and policy makers pushing for a Data Protection Bill.

For the case of Rubin’s selective perception, he states that people only see what they

want to see to enforce their own ideas and ignoring other information.

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 After the escalation of the issue, Selangor opposition chief Datuk Seri Dr

Mohd Khir Toyo said that Malaysian’s won’t be able to accept such scandals

demanding Elizabeth to resign. He was speaking out his own opinion and he used the

term Malaysians as a collective nation who disapproved her actions. His statement

did not include about the positive work of Elizabeth and her contributions but he

choose to highlight her as a cheap woman.

According to Rubin, self-fulfilling prophecy is used to describe a response or

an outcome that is used to enforce earlier presumptions. In the case of Elizabeth

Wong, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo again asked that, “If an unwedded woman is

sleeping with a man in the same room, what conclusion can we come up with?”

implying that she was a woman with loose morals instead of she’s too trusting or

naïve.

Stalemate means that adversaries become an unexpected ally to accomplish a

collective goal and this is showed when the Opposition party MCA Wanita chief

Datin Chew Mei Fun defended Elizabeth by condemning people responsible for

invasion of privacy and using women as sexual objects. In the de-escalation issue,

the resignation of Elizabeth Wong seems to be the resolution and as mentioned in the

escalation part, nobody remembers that Elizabeth Wong’s privacy was the root cause

as they all focused on the Data Protection Bill, Protection Act and Human Rights

Act.

However, according to Rahim (2001) the term resolution is very ambiguous

and there is a very big difference between resolution and conflict management. In

this case, Elizabeth Wong did not use resolution, she used conflict management.

While resolution means eliminating conflict, conflict management is a systematic,

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conflict reducing strategy. Elizabeth Wong took steps such as reporting to the police,

apologizing and issuing public statements to her public.

Since she’s an influential and a prominent person, her public are varied and

diverse. Guth and March (2006) states that publics are a group of people who share

the same values and interest under a certain circumstance. Her public has been

identified as the political party, her human rights group, policy makers and the

women’s organizations.

This issue affects her publics in different ways. For her political party,

women’s organization and human rights group, they are upset that she could be so

careless but most women politicians supported her because it was an invasion of her

privacy, not something she had consented to. For the policy maker, this case is an

example to have stricter penalties since the current penalty is on 100MYR if caught.

This enforces Grunig’s (1992) theory about latent publics who are motivated to

become active publics.

The Malaysian Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan discussed

the importance of privacy since the society has different ideas on morality in a forum

titled, “Privacy: Does it exist in Malaysia? Is it time to legislate?” recently. Her

views coincides with Moffitt (1992) stating that people has a difficulty in finding

meanings when an issue involves a cultural and social aspect. Moffitt also states that

it is important that “text” have different meanings and people interpret text based on

their socio-economic background and lived experiences.

The term Peeping Tom has existed since centuries ago and the highest rating

for a television programme is Big Brother and it’s been proven time after time that

it’s the natural instinct for a person to know what’s going on. According to Tester

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(2005) the reason Big Brother is so successful is the blend of drama and scandals

behind closed doors.

According to Margalit (2001) we normally behave more like ourselves

without feeling conscious about what we’re wearing, how we’re behaving in our

own home and we’re more relaxed and comfortable in an environment where it

assume that we’re safe. However, under Section 377 of the Penal Code in Malaysia

states that unnatural sex act where carnal unnatural intercourse such as sexual acts

that does not involve the penetration of a women’s vagina is punished with 20 years

in jail.

Like Foucault’s (1995) theory on panopticism, the government is determined

to keep a close watch on the people from their personal life and now to their sexual

or romantic life. Like Bentham’s (1995) panopticon design of prison that occupants

serves only as an informative entity and never a communicative entity meaning that

the occupants are to be seen and not heard in order to encourage moral reform. This

describes the Malaysian government.

An individual’s sexual preferences and appetite varies from one person to

another and the government’s ruling on unnatural sex is based in the 1850’s in Old

Britain and introduced in the 19th century to Asian colonies such as Malaysia,

Singapore, India and Hong Kong. Enforcing the unnatural sex act is a violation to

the United Nations Basic Human Rights Article 12 everyone has the right to privacy

especially in their own home. Unnatural sex involves copulation, masturbation, anal

sex, bestiality, homosexual acts, fellatio, cunnilingus, necrophilia and buggery. In

other words, creative sexual positions are prohibited.

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 According to Benoit and Pang (2007) what may seem offensive for some,

may not be for others and in this case the pictures. The pictures taken were of the

lowest quality, grainy and dark with no direct frontal view of her private parts.

However, people are upset at the fact that she wasn’t careful and not the pictures.

People thought that she knew better because it’s very difficult for a Chinese woman

to be in the politics and especially the Opposition party.

Benoit and Pang also mentioned about shifting the blame as a way to

improve image and it is is the strategy that Elizabeth choose to follow. Shifting the

blame means admitting to an act but blaming it on another person. This is wrong

because in her case, she let the proprietor into her room, putting herself in a

vulnerable position for him to take advantage of. She should have used Benoit and

Pang’s strategy on mortification where she admits and apologize for her actions.

Regester and Larkin (1997) argues that blaming is a weak management

strategy because it’s disguising reality and not being responsible for their actions. He

further argues that the way of communicating and accepting the blame is seen as a

noble act. Research also states that people are generally more forgiving when

another party apologizes.

However, it’s a surprise that none of the Islamic bodies accused Elizabeth

Wong’s ex boyfriend Md. Helmi of khalwat (close proximity) and there is no action

except the usual rhetoric ‘pending investigation’ against him. This is clearly a double

standard to put all the blame on the woman while the man gets away scot free.

Another issue is that Malaysians are too conservative. The current wife of

France’s PM; Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is scandalous and would be considered more

liberal and yet, France accepted her. During the US presidential elections, Sarah

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Palin’s teenage daughter was pregnant and if this was the case in Malaysia, Palin and

her family will be shunned but in America, they accepted it and she had an advantage

that she is pro-life.

In America, Palin is seen as a politician first and then a mother. Malaysians

should do the same thing and acknowledge Elizabeth Wong’s contribution to the

politically and socially. Elizabeth Wong is a politician first and Malaysians have to

distinguish between a person’s work and personal life which are 2 different, separate

entities. Like what the Selangor opposition Chief Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo

said, Malaysia won’t accept a leader with such scandal. Malaysia isn’t just

conservative, it is also unforgiving.

In conclusion, the issue of invasion of privacy is rampant because the Penal

Code has no exact punishment for those who invade the privacy of others. The

maximum fine is just a mere 100MYR which will not deter these perverts. The

policy makers are already pushing for a Data Protection Bill which hopes to protect

victims like Elizabeth Wong and a higher penalty that includes jail term for those

convicted. Women’s organizations have also created awareness, asking women to be

more careful and not to be too trusting or naïve.

Even though this is an unfortunate event, it is benchmark for others to respect

the privacy of others. This is an exemplary case where a nation mourns a basic

human right that has been violated and with the policy makers and influential people

involved, the dignity of the victim’s shall be restored. According to Berman and

Bruening (2001) states that the technological advances and new standards should

improve and protect the privacy of the people.

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(2184 words)

REFERENCES:

Benoit, W.L. & Pang, A. (2007) Crisis communication and image repair
discourse. In Hansen-Horn, T. & Neff, B., Public Relations: From Theory to
Practice, Pearson Education.

Berman, J. & Bruening, P. (2001) Is privacy still possible in the 21st century?,
Social Research, Spring 2001; 68, 1.

Bonzovic, M. & Bentham, J. (1995) The Panopticon Writings, London Verso.

Foucalt, M. (1975) Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la Prison, Vintage

Books.

Grunig, J.E. (1992) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication

Management, Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Guth, D.W. & Marsh, C. (2006) Public Relations: A Values-Driven Approach,

3rd Edition, Pearson Education.

Margalit, A. (2001) Privacy in the decent society, Social Research, Spring

2001; 68, 1.

Moffitt, M.A. (1992) Bringing critical theory and ethical considerations to

definitions of a “public”, Public Relations Review, Spring 1992; 18, 1.

Rahim, M. A. (2001) Managing organizational conflict. In Golembiewski,

R.T., Handbook of Organizational Behaviour 2nd Edition, New York: Marcel
Dekker.

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Rubin, J.Z. (1993) Conflict from a psychological perspective. In Hall, L.
Negotiation: Strategies for mutual gain, Newbury Park; Sage.

Regester, M. & Larkin, J. (1997) Issue and crisis management: Fail-safe

procedures. In Kitchen, P.J., Public Relations: Principles and Practice,
Thomson Learning.

Tester, K. (2005) Loving Big Brother: Performance, privacy and surveillance

space, Media, Culture & Society Vol. 27, Issue 6.

The Star, More is expected of female MPs,

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/22/focus/3323280&sec=fo
cus

(accessed on March 18, 2009)

The Star, Need for tougher laws against invasion of privacy,

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/22/nation/3322693

(accessed on March 18, 2009)

The Star, Nude pix scandal hits PKR rep,

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/16/nation/2009021611581
4&sec=nation (accessed on March 16, 2009)

The Star, Privacy is your responsibility,

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/1/nation/3372039&sec=na
tion (accessed on March 16, 2009)

United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html (accessed on March 16, 2009)

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