LETTER | Swatch ban spurs allegiance switch

LETTER | I had to do a double take when I first came across news that the Madani government is going to ban all Swatch timepieces that carry the LGBT theme. My first reaction was that the news portal which carried the report must have been misreported.

But when I came across more and more news outlets carrying the same narrative, I realised this is for real and a sense of surrealism started to descend upon me.

I thought, oh no, this Madani government which I had repeatedly voted for in the past four general elections is going down the Umno-BN route.

This was when I tried to make sense of this crazy idea and tried searching for a logical explanation.

Shortly after, I stumbled upon a tweet by lawyer-activist Siti Kasim reacting to the ban. She wrote:  “Kerajaan Madani makin gila.... worse than any other government before this. More vicious.”

The “worse than any other government” bit hit home. It was like a heavy punch landed on my gut and it dawned upon me that this government is not just on par with its predecessors, it seems worse!

Even repressive regimes like North Korea do not jail its citizens for owning rainbow-themed watch straps. Pray tell, how can owning a watch strap be “prejudicial to morality”? I can ponder this until eternity but I’d never be able to wrap my head around this concept.

Perhaps Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is trying to score some political points among the Muslims in the run-up to the elections in six states tomorrow.

But first of all, I don’t think any rational person - Muslim or otherwise - will support this ban for what it is.

Secondly, let’s not confuse homosexuality with owning a watch strap. Those are two separate things. Most of us know that homosexuality is illegal under the law in Malaysia.

What’s next on the government agenda? Ban kuih lapis pelangi? Ban Paddle Pop ice cream? Shoot at rainbows when it appears after the rain?

Is the prime minister taking non-Muslim support for granted in the elections? Because if he is, then he’s no better than the PAS leaders Harapan vilified, if not worse. In fact, I have never heard of any PAS leaders asking to ban watch straps!

But if there is anything good that comes out of this, it is the fact that the unity government has now shown its true colours. And after decades of supporting Harapan, tomorrow, for the first time, I will not vote for the coalition anymore.

It needs to be taught a painful lesson, taking us non-Muslims for granted!

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.