‘Malaysian government should not discriminate against LGBTs’

September 19, 2012

It’s discrimination similar to those based on race, religion, gender and skin colour. And that is wrong, says Gerakan.

GEORGE TOWN: Asking lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) to migrate to the West is a provocative and unwarranted form of discrimination, said two Gerakan politicians.

Baljit Singh and Rowena Yam, while making it clear that they were not for “free sex” culture, called on the government not to pass the buck and burden schools to address the issue.

Baljit slammed UKM associate professor Dr Samsul Adabi Mamat’s suggestion that LGBTs should migrate to the West if they wanted to continue their lifestyle.

Baljit said Samsul’s suggestion was way off the mark and that the professor should first understand and accept the fact that LGBTs, like others, have their rights too.

“I agree that LGBT is not a culture to be encouraged. But just because they are LGBTs, we cannot chase them away from their own country.

“It’s discrimination similar to those based on race, religion, gender and skin colour. And that is wrong,” said Baljit, who heads Gerakan’s state legal and human rights bureau.

Samsul said the majority of Malaysians could not accept or digest the LGBT culture.

He also said informative and accurate description of sexuality was crucial and Malaysians needed Eastern views and opinions, not solely dependent on Western perspective.

In Malaysia, he said LGBT would be judged based on religion and “obviously the LGBT culture is against religion”.

Bully culture
Yam said that the government should not burden teachers and students with more moral education when they were already overloaded with exam-orientated syllabuses.

She cautioned that education guidelines in schools could also trigger sexual abuse and a violent bully culture among pupils.

She ticked off the government’s tendency to look for an easy way out by always engaging schools and teachers to tackle a new emerging social ill.

She said this was dodging from their responsibility to tackle social ills. Yam recalled earlier unsuccessful efforts to flush out social ills, such as “lepak”, “boh sia” and “boh Jan”.

“LGBT is a worldwide phenomena, not just in Malaysia. It’s premature to implement school guidelines on it. The government should engage experts to resolve the LGBT issue.

“Schools should be left out,” said Yam, who heads Gerakan’s state political training bureau.

The Education Ministry recently endorsed guidelines to help parents identify LGBT traits among their children.

Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, the wife of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has called on educators to follow up on the guidelines to be used by teachers.

Malay rights organisation Perkasa, however, rejected the school guidelines, insisting that parents’ role was far more important in tackling the LGBT issue.