We should legalise gay relationships

By MT Webmaster Last updated Mar 5, 2015

So the first step to removing bad laws, such as the sodomy law, is to legalise gay unions. Then we no longer need worry about being sent to jail for sodomy. And Pakatan Rakyat should spearhead this fight. And I hope to see the 80-odd Pakatan Rakyat MPs unanimously arguing in Parliament in support of gay rights.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Malaysians always argue that it is not the law itself that they oppose but rather the abuse of the law. I suppose that makes sense. When Tun Abdul Razak Hussein presented the Internal Security Act (ISA) Bill in Parliament in 1960 even the opposition supported it.

Tun Razak told Parliament they needed the ISA specifically to combat terrorism. Tun Razak also promised Parliament that the ISA would only be used against Communist Terrorists (CTs) and for no other purpose other than that.

And then there was no longer any Emergency and the Communists signed a peace treaty with the Malaysian government but the ISA remained and was not repealed and was used against dissidents. Hence in that sense the Malaysian government abused what was originally seen as a good law.

And the courts would close one eye. The judges ruled that it is legal to use the ISA against non-Communist Terrorists whereas the ISA was passed into law in 1960 for a specific purpose: and that is to combat terrorism being perpetuated by the CTs.

Now the ISA has been repealed and we find that we now have a problem with Malaysian Muslims going to Syria to join IS. And we worry that these people may one day come home and import their terrorism into Malaysia and that this would become a security threat to Malaysia.

And now some people are saying they wish we still had the ISA. But if we did still have the ISA to use against Muslim militants can’t the law, yet again, be used (or abused) against political dissidents who are not terrorists but merely people speaking their mind?

I would argue that if the law is good then it should not be possible to abuse it. If you can abuse any particular law then the law must be bad. Either that or the judiciary is corrupt and judges make bad rulings just to please the powers-that-be.

So who is the problem here?

Are the Members of Parliament who pass bad laws the problem? Is it the police that use these bad laws to arrest people the problem? Is it the AG Chambers that decides to charge people arrested under these bad laws the problem? Or is it the judges who convict you under the bad laws the problem?

I would say all of the above.

The fact that Parliament passed bad laws gave the ammunition to the police to use these laws. If there were no bad laws the police would not have these laws to use. And neither would the AG Chambers be able to charge you or the courts be able to convict you if these bad laws do not exist.

So let us not just blame the police, the AG or the judiciary. Why in the first place was Parliament so stupid in formulating these bad laws? The Members of Parliament are the lawmakers and if they did not make bad laws we would not be faced with the problem of people being unjustly convicted and sent to jail.

I have noticed that the raging debate currently going on is regarding Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence. How could Anwar who is old and weak force himself upon Saiful who is young and strong? If it was consensual then why was Saiful not also charged? Why only Anwar when probably millions of Malaysians also do what Anwar was alleged to have done and yet are not arrested and charged?

Maybe Anwar was targeted. Maybe Anwar is a victim of a political conspiracy. Maybe Anwar was set up with a honey-trap. Maybe Anwar was fixed up with fabricated charges and false evidence.

Those are all the issues in the debate. But the crucial element in this whole thing is that, whether all this is true or not, the fact that there is such a law makes it possible to send Anwar to jail whether fixed up or otherwise.

Hence PAS, DAP and PKR should protest this sodomy law (which covers oral sex as well) and in the next Parliament sitting Pakatan Rakyat should unanimously propose that this law be abolished.

Gay relationships should be legalised and no longer should anal sex or oral sex (even between the same sex) be considered a crime. Then we will no longer see people like Anwar Ibrahim being sent to jail. Hell, under the existing law, even husbands and wives can be sent to jail.

So Pakatan Rakyat should not just scream about how unfair it is to send Anwar to jail. Even if the trial was flawed Anwar was sent to jail under a law that exists. He would not have been sent to jail if the law does not exist.

I know there are many hardcore Muslims and Christians in Pakatan Rakyat and Islam and Christianity both bar homosexuality. But we must not worry about this because the issue here is the law and not religion. After all, is Malaysia not a secular country as Pakatan Rakyat always argues?

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK