Reclaiming the Malaysia of 1980

WE are a very sensitive country. Make no bones about it. Different communities can get upset, aggrieved or insulted by a variety of things, especially when they are related to religious sensitivities.

In the case of Coldplay’s concert, PAS got all hot and bothered and wanted it cancelled because band leader Chris Martin supports gay rights.

No surprises here. Many international artistes are banned from performing in Malaysia usually in the name of protecting religious sensitivities and local culture. Mind you, it wasn’t always PAS that was behind the banning of artistes.

It goes back to the 1990s, and the list of artistes banned includes Chicago, which was not allowed in because the band’s members sported long hair. The legendary group was finally allowed in when they were in their 60s and presumably had a lot less hair!

Other foreign artistes deemed inappropriate to Malaysian sensibilities include Megadeth, Erykah Badu, Beyonce, Kesha and Lady Gaga. Michael Jackson’s HIStory World Tour concert in October 1996 was allowed after he agreed to drop his trademark, and now much copied, crotch-grab dance move.

So Malaysia is very careful about artistes hurting our feelings and being a bad influence on our young. This protective nature must have heightened after the July 2023 fiasco when Matty Healy, lead singer of British pop rock band The 1975, kissed a male bandmate onstage at a music festival and ranted against Malaysia’s anti-LGBT laws.

All over the world, LGBT rights activists are pushing deeper and harder into mainstream society and notching up great successes. There is no escaping it.

Our nation is stoutly conservative, adhering to longstanding societal mores, customs and religious beliefs that abhor deviance from the norm. But has it always been so?

To find out, I looked through three reports published online examining gay rights, or rather LGBT rights as it is now more commonly referred to, in Malaysia.

The first and oldest is a September 2014 Human Rights Watch report titled, I’m Scared to Be a Woman; Human Rights Abuses Against Transgender People in Malaysia.

Older transgender people interviewed claimed that prior to the early 1980s, there was no violence nor harassment from the police or religious authorities. But that changed when the National Fatwa Council issued a fatwa in 1982 against sex reassignment surgery, they said.

The report said that from 1985 to 2012, every state and federal territory introduced syariah enactments that criminalised “a man posing as a woman” and vice versa, thus making Malaysia one of the few countries in the world that explicitly criminalises transgender people.

It cited Dr Teh Yik Koon, author of a 2002 landmark study of transwomen titled The Mak Nyahs, Malaysian Male to Female Transsexuals (she released an updated version in April this year), as saying that “intolerant government rhetoric filters down to the general public, influencing public attitudes toward transgender people and the broader LGBT community.

“Their situation being illegal leads to discrimination against them. People rely on the government to tell them what’s right and wrong – especially when it comes to (what is perceived as) a religious question.”

A study published in the International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences in March 2021, titled Public Receptivity Towards LGBT in Recent Times Malaysia: LGBT Perspectives, noted that despite the authorities taking a very stern stance against Malay Muslim LGBT (and Malaysian LGBT communities), the study authors believe the taboo on LGBT in the country is “dissipating”.

They attributed this to, among others, the emergence of LGBT figures like entrepreneurs, social media influencers and rights activists on social media platforms.

Not surprisingly then, authors of The Prosecution of Islamic Criminal Offences Related to LGBT in Online Platforms: An Analysis of Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995, published in the September 2023 issue of the Journal of Fatwa Management and Research, called for “improvements” in current legislation under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to “preserve the sanctity of Islam and its institutions and more importantly, to act as a deterrence to immoral behaviours related to LGBT in online platforms.”

I am all for curbing immoral behaviour, but if the authors believe that more cyber laws will protect our citizens from what is deemed undesirable influences, they are sadly mistaken.

This is because out there in the entertainment world, gay-themed films and dramas are a rapidly growing industry and such content are not only from the decadent West but also from our very near and dear neighbours and elsewhere in Asia.

Our northern neighbour has long been known for its openness to its LGBT community. Gay sex was decriminalised in Thailand in 1956, and in 2002, homosexuality was no longer regarded as a mental disorder.

Next month, the Thai government is expected to submit to Parliament the draft of an amendment to its civil code to allow same-sex marriage. If passed, Thailand will be the third Asian nation, after Taiwan and Nepal, to allow same-sex marriage.

The Bangkok Post reports that buoyed by openness, Thai-made “Boys’ Love (BL)” films and drama series have been winning local audiences and become promising export products.

The Thais refer to such content as “Y series” because it originates from “yaoi”, a genre consisting of male-male romance fiction in manga and illustrated novels created by women and for women in Japan.

In 2021, the Thai government said one billion baht (about RM133mil) worth of Y content was sold to markets like Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Latin America.

Nikkei Asia reported that like K-pop, the growing popularity of Thailand’s BL dramas could storm the world.

It’s not just Thailand that is producing BL content; Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and of course Japan do too.

While such content won’t make it to official channels like TV stations in Malaysia and Indonesia, it is easily found on many streaming websites with English subtitles, including Netflix.

In our digitally porous world, how does a government prevent its citizens from being exposed to influences it deems immoral and religiously offensive that are easily accessible, short of pulling the plug on the Internet?

And despite the exposure, have Malaysians, especially young Muslims, become worse for it? Some serious research on this issue would certainly shed some light on this.

Perhaps we can also take a leaf from one of the most religiously conservative nations in the world, Saudi Arabia, that has decided it has more to gain by loosening its restrictive laws.

The kingdom now allows rave parties, men and women dancing together, and concerts by international stars like Justin Bieber, Shakira, BTS and Blackpink.

As I have said before, we should be wary of what PAS wants for Malaysia – a full-blown Islamic nation-state, which I truly believe will not be in the best interest of our multi-religious country.

It may be wishful thinking, but can we revert to Malaysia circa 1980 when there was more accommodation and understanding and less prejudice and judgement, making our nation a kinder place for all?

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.