Justice For LGBTs, Justice For Malaysia

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Apr 26, 2012

“Today I withhold this keris. But if one day I can’t tolerate anymore, I will use the keris against the enemy of this land!”

– Speaker at Anti-LGBT Rally, 12 Apr 2012

When the speaker at the Anti-LGBT rally talked about killing whoever he imagined is “the enemy of this land”, and by enemy he implied anyone who advocates for the human rights of LGBTs, the authorities looked the other way. But when Seksualiti Merdeka appealed for understanding, compassion and equality, it was deemed a threat to the national security and was banned by the police.

Loyarburok

Have we gotten so used to threats that we are now threatened by compassion? Or could it be that we can no longer tell the difference between those making threats and those upholding the law? Look at what is happening at Dataran Merdeka this week. By brute force, the authorities have attempted to subdue those who dare to question their authority. If that fails, they will try to snuff out our hope for change by applying administrative terrorism.

It’s not just the police and the DBKL. I’m afraid the courts are no better. Seksualiti Merdeka’s judicial review of the ban was thrown out by a judge who insisted that the police’s power cannot be reviewed, effectively allowing the police a caveat to abuse its power unchallenged.

Last week, a teenager was charged for assaulting a Mak Nyah with a metal rod. He was fined a mere RM400. Meanwhile, when Mak Nyahs around the country are arrested under Syariah offences for expressing themselves and not hurting anybody, they are fined RM1000 each and sent for counselling. We try to rehabilitate these Mak Nyahs for being too gentle, but these men who are so insecure about their masculinity they need to prove it through violence, we let them out to play after a smack on the hand.

So, at the forum titled “Homosexuality: A right or a crime?” at International Islamic University Malaysia two weeks ago, when the question was posed by an audience, “Aren’t the laws we already have enough to protect the LGBTs? We have laws for murder, for physical assault, for wrongful termination at work, etc. Are they not enough?” I can say, the answer is no.

In this article, I am less interested in what JMM said than in how they get away with what they say. I am interested in how the government of the day, which is supposed to be neutral, takes the side of the bullies against the bullied.

With bullies running the country, many LGBTs find themselves hiding further and further beyond the margins of the legal, beyond the reach of the laws that deem them unfit for society. Making a person think he deserves no justice is NO different from denying him justice. And that is how many LGBTs are denied one of the most fundamental rights of being human: the right to justice.

THE BULLY’S CHARTER

Malaysians don’t seem to understand that a just system is one in which minorities are protected from the majority, not the other way round. The most important minority is the minority of one. And if the law protects this minority against the tyranny of the majority, then it protects everyone. All of us!

Unfortunately, that is not the case in Malaysia. Not only does Malaysian justice not care about inequality, it seems to thrive on it. Some laws in Malaysia are effectively a bully’s charter.

Case in point: there is no law against homosexuality in Malaysia yet many believe it is a crime to be gay and lesbian. People may cite penal code “377a” and “377b”. But according to the wording of the statute, the crime is committed when ANYONE introduces his penis into a mouth or anus. Yes, ANYONE. I’m sorry to break it to you heteros: it is a crime for a husband to receive blowjobs from a wife too. You like this law so much, how about we knock down all your bedroom doors now and check?