“By students, they mean female students,” said AWL president Sheena Gurbakhash, in reference to the fact that no “sugar daddies” were being investigated yet.
“So there is a double standard at play here with women’s actions and choices being held up for scrutiny, judgment and censure.”
Sheena told FMT there was no basis to investigate the students since relationships between consenting adults were not illegal.
She suggested that the authorities instead review laws on prostitution, which she said currently “victimise sex workers, making them vulnerable to exploitation by their pimps and customers and even by police”.
Sugarbook, the biggest “sugar daddy-sugar baby” dating service in Asia, has disclosed that 12,705 of its “sugar baby” users are students from 10 public and private universities.
Police started investigating the website and users who might have carried out “immoral activities” after an educational institution lodged a report early this week.
The higher education ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission are also investigating the Sugarbook application and the universities listed. The website has been blocked.
The site’s alleged founder was arrested and has been remanded for a week.
He is also being investigated in relation to two separate cases.
He is reportedly being investigated under various laws, including Section 372 of the Penal Code for involvement in prostitution and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of network facilities.
Lawyer N Sivananthan has accused the authorities of moral policing and said the actions taken in relation to Sugarbook were all “knee-jerk reactions that don’t make sense”.
He said he could not understand the application of the Penal Code to the case since no one was being forced or paid to visit the website.
“These people are signing up voluntarily and the site clearly states what it is about,” he said.
“It is not a site for prostitution. It is an introduction platform for like-minded people to meet each other, and the founder has nothing to do with what they decide to do after that.”
He added that it was unfair to equate “sugar babies” with prostitutes and that it was an infringement of people’s right of choice to prevent interactions on the site.