When will Putrajaya realise that people who exhibit homosexual tendencies are human beings, too?
Mariam Mokhtar, FMT
Deep in the bowels of Putrajaya there exists a little known department that is out to drive the average Malaysian crazy. Yesterday, the latest plan of this department was revealed. It also gave us a tiny insight into how it works.
Under the guise of the Yayasan Guru Malaysia Bhd and the Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parents and Teachers Associations, a guideline was issued so that parents and teachers could detect homosexuality in schoolchildren and students.
The taxpayer should ask the government how much of the public’s money was spent to fund this study, how long the study lasted, which experts were consulted, what criteria were used and how they arrived at their conclusions?
Instead of improving the standard of education, and its delivery, the Education Ministry has misplaced its priorities. When will Putrajaya realise that people who exhibit homosexual tendencies are human beings, too?
If the truth be known, and despite what Islam preaches, every other Malay family has a closet homosexual in its midst. Is society to deny them a right to live as respected members of the community?
For starters, the “guide” said that gays could be detected by their muscular bodies, and their propensity for wearing “V-necks” and sleeveless tops.
Have the people conducting this study been watching too many videos of Freddie Mercury and George Michael gyrating on stage, and been mesmerised by their rippling muscles and sleeveless tops?
Perhaps they have been side-tracked by Dolce & Gabbana handbags for men? They should spare a thought for the many men who go on the haj. Some of them claim that the best way to carry all their travel documents and other paraphernalia is in a handbag.
What about the many muscular teenagers who keep fit because they believe in a healthy lifestyle and like sports? The latest Putrajaya guide views them as potential homosexuals. Not all homosexuals have muscular bodies, like the celebrity who performed at Genting Highlands, recently.
Sportsmen and women wear sleeveless tops to reduce air resistance, to allow their skins to breath and they prefer clothes that will not hamper their movements. Under the new homosexual detection guidelines, wearing tight-fitting lycra is out. If our Olympic cyclists were students, they would be ostracised. What should sporty Malaysian students wear then? The jubah or hijab? If Pandelela were a man, would she be diving wearing a sarong?
One wonders what Abercrombie and Fitch, Burberry and Aquascutum have to say about the new guide? Will these designer labels suffer a drop in sales for their V-neck jumpers, sleeveless tops and handbags for men? After all, the offspring of Umno politicians and their cronies are the ones who are seen to frequent these stores, especially in London, where a number of them go to escape the claustrophobic Malaysian social mores.
Far removed from reality
V-neck jumpers form part of the school uniform for schoolchildren in UK where many Umno offspring go to study. Is this report indirectly saying that homosexual children linked to Umno are sent overseas to prevent them from being vilified?
The Putrajaya guide for detecting lesbians is just as laughable. The people who devised this study are far removed from reality and have excluded many known lesbian traits.
In Malaysian life, any Malay girl who “hangs out, sleeps and dines” with men would be hounded by the religious and moral police. So, under these rules, sleepovers with friends are disallowed.
In Malaysia, especially Malay society, the two sexes are deliberately kept apart. There is little chance for either sex to interact normally with each other. This hampers any mental, social and moral development, so girls do not know how to react with men.
When they go abroad to study, the girls are “liberated” from the strict confines of their upbringing and mingle with the other sex. Then they often go wild, like a dam that has broken. What will the Putrajaya guide make of that?
It was reported that during the unveiling of these guidelines, Deputy Education Minister Mohd Puad Zarkashi said: “The time has come for the LGBT issue to be discussed openly and not seen as a ‘taboo’”.
