No, smokers don’t have fewer rights than LGBTs
If Bung Moktar wants to take the issue of smokers’ rights seriously, then we would like him to take the issues faced by the LGBTs and on human rights here in Malaysia just as seriously, if not more.
Hafidz Baharom, Free Malaysia Today
An article recently quoted a Malaysian lawmaker as saying that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs) have more rights than smokers.
Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin was quoted as saying this after seven people and one lawmaker were fined for smoking in Parliament grounds, now a designated and enforced smoke-free zone. This cannot be further from the truth.
Earlier this year, a club was raided by the authorities for being labelled an LGBT club. Do you see cigar and cigarette shops going through something similar? Obviously not.
Do you see portraits and photographs of smokers being taken down during art festivals simply because their subjects smoked a cigarette? Nope.
Do you have homes and even hotels being raided over someone inside smoking a cigarette, or being taken to court for simply smoking in your car? Of course not. That would be ludicrous.
And obviously you don’t get beaten up while walking down the street simply for smoking because that would be insane. Yet, this is what happened to a transgender in Negeri Sembilan on Aug 15.
More recently, do editors get a show-cause letter from the home ministry for writing about smokers? Because this happened to Chinese newspaper Oriental Daily this month. But for some reason, it was not reported in the press. Perhaps because the same hush letter was received by those writing about it, or maybe the editors believed it was not newsworthy.
Yes, Bung Moktar was saying such in jest. However, the discrimination faced by smokers is not in the same league as that faced by the LGBT community, let alone LGBT smokers who face both, and yet end up lending lighters to a straight guy to impress a girl.
But the Kinabatangan MP does have a very minor point – not having a smoking area in Parliament is discriminatory. Just like not allowing LGBTs to be themselves in closed, private places such as clubs or even their own homes, or even have a portrait or picture featured at an art gallery, or a piece of news quoting them, is discriminatory.
If Bung Moktar is griping about smokers not being able to smoke in Parliament, then he should be able to empathise with the transgender who cannot walk down the street without being harassed by the authorities.
If Bung Moktar believes that perhaps the authorities will raid parliamentary offices to check for smokers, he can empathise with the Malaysian LGBTs who get raided in their homes by enforcement agencies.
If Bung Moktar thinks it is in bad taste to fine smokers, then he should empathise with the Malaysian LGBTs who are caught going to clubs only to end up getting fined and being given a mandatory ticket to attend counselling.
So if Bung Moktar wants to take the issue of smokers’ rights seriously, then we would like him to take the issues faced by the LGBTs and on human rights here in Malaysia just as seriously, if not more.
See, while smokers can switch to a non-nicotine vaping device and not get caught as mentioned by the deputy health minister, LGBTs don’t have that same choice.
