Harapan was voted in to defend the marginalised, not bully them

COMMENT | The investigation into the International Women’s Day march for sedition and illegal assembly is the last thing I thought I would see under the present government. 

It is a betrayal of the people who voted in this government believing that there would be respect for fundamental liberties, including the right to assemble peacefully.

It seems that the Women’s Day march may have escaped scrutiny if not for their demand (amongst other justifiable demands) for LGBT persons not to face violence or be discriminated against. 

That, it seems, was not acceptable to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who promptly issued a statement condemning the march.

Why did Mujahid adopt this stance when he had said just six months ago that LGBT persons should not be discriminated against and criminalised at their workplace and that the transgender community should be not be persecuted? 

Where is the compassion and respect that deputy minister Fuziah Salleh said should be used to approach the LGBT group?

Perhaps these latest remarks are coming from a fear apparently gripping our leaders that they may be viewed as too liberal which may result in their losing the next elections. 

If this is the case, it is reprehensible that our leaders would try to gain political points at the expense of marginalised and vulnerable persons, who are subject to constant discrimination and violence.

Discrimination and violence

Transgender people have been murdered with victims found with signs of having undergone extreme violence or torture. Transgender women face harassment from public authorities – with accounts of them being arrested and forced to strip naked.

In 2017, an 18-year-old boy in Penang died without regaining consciousness after he was brutally assaulted with helmets, burnt and sodomised with an object by five youths, who taunted him as being effeminate.

LGBT persons face discrimination at workplaces and at hospitals. Some healthcare personnel have refused to touch them when carrying out medical examinations.

The above examples are but a few and are a result of the constant hate rhetoric hurled at the community. Their lives are difficult enough without them being constantly used as a convenient punching bag by politicians.

Courage, not cowardice

On March 14, it was horrifying to hear members of Parliament from PAS and even Pakatan Harapan stand up and pour vitriol on the LGBT community, practically comparing them to animals.

Are they proud of the way they attacked a minority community with their non-scientific based views, thus exposing them to more violence and hate? But then, it is easy to attack a minority group. That is not courage. That is cowardice.

I urge all leaders who condemn LGBT persons to consider this – you do not have to agree with the LGBT community or approve of them. But as leaders, you do have a duty to ensure their safety and to protect their fundamental rights.

It is easy to beat up on minority communities who are unable to fight back. What takes courage and leadership is to fight for their fundamental liberties even if you disagree with them. 

To quote a colleague Andrew Khoo who said in 2007, “The true test of a mature democracy is how the rights of the minority are protected by the government in the face of the majority. How the weak are protected in the face of the strong. If might is right, then all we will have done is legitimised bullying.”

Right now, some Pakatan Harapan leaders are behaving like bullies, instead of responsible leaders.

They are not only failing to protect the weak, but they are endangering them further with their discriminatory remarks.

I urge the police under the Harapan government to cease the investigations against the organisers of the Women’s Day march.

And if our leaders are questioned by the public on this issue, they should say this – “We are aware that there are many who may not personally approve of the LGBT community. However, everyone is entitled to equal protection of the law.”

“The Federal Constitution does not discriminate on the grounds of gender or sexual identity. This government will not tolerate any form of violence against any person. Every human being deserves to live free from fear.”

We voted this government in, and we want this government to succeed. But they must show leadership on the tough issues. That is not difficult if they rely on the rule of law and take a rights-based approach.

If they do not, then they are no better than the previous government who, at least, did not pretend that they cared about minority rights and the rule of law.

AMBIGA SREENEVASAN is a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists and former member of the Institutional Reforms Committee.

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