ANWAR IBRAHIM ALLEGED SEX VIDEO PART 2

Anwar's sex video - Part 2

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Softies and sexuality

Opinion by Hafidz Baharom

APRIL 27 — I’m not sure what is more disturbing in this day and age: The fact that we actually have a camp specifically for effeminate men to go butch, or the fact that the government of Terengganu thinks an all-sponsored honeymoon package would help couples in marital conflicts get back together.

First of all, I have an objection to the fact that a reporter used the word “sissies” in a story about a camp in the state of Terengganu that took in 66 effeminate boys from various schools in the state to teach them how to be manly. It is offensive not only to people as a whole, but it is a sign that perhaps sensitivity training or even education is not high on the list of requirements for writers in the newspaper that he works for.

Now allow me to clarify. Effeminacy does not correlate to a schoolboy’s sexuality. It has no bearing whatsoever on a person’s sexuality. If a girl who’s a tomboy in school is still a girl, then a boy who is effeminate is by all means still a boy. Hell, a guy could be a testosterone leaking bodybuilder, graduating summa cum laude in Islamic studies, enjoys watching the English Premier League with his mates and still be gayer than Kurt in Glee.

There is something at work here that has me wondering just how high does this so-called sissy camp movement go? Did the Ministry of Education know about this?

I ask this because in 2007, the Malaysian Higher Education Minister’s parliament secretary Datuk Dr Adham Baba said that “soft” men won’t be recruited as teachers, with the definition of “soft” being those who wore makeup and fake eyelashes. Of course, he was later denounced by Cuepacs president Omar Osman, who said that these soft men should not be deprived of their right to pursue life as an educator. Notably, he also remarked that these men often had a sharper intellect. “Soft” men have indirectly borne the brunt of many, many slurs that were usually reserved for gay, lesbian and transgender people regardless of their own sexual orientation.

It’s something that Malaysians commonly do in the government. The effeminate men get lumped together with the LGBT community, and the Sabahan and Sarawakian natives are lumped together as “dan lain-lain”. In fact, being a homosexual, in a statement in 1994 by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is an ailment of “too much Western-style democracy”, and is lumped together with abortion.

Somehow, our former prime minister and his Look East policy “closed one eye” when it came to acknowledging that Japan recognises their citizens to be gay.

Currently, with Lady Gaga having her lyrics scrambled by the Malaysian radio stations, and Azwan Ismail on YouTube declaring that it was okay to be gay, and a Muslim having apparently shamed an entire religious base of 1.6 billion people, we have become a nation that can no longer call ourselves diverse and living in harmony. We have in our communities people brought up with the notion that death threats, beatings and even libel and slander is acceptable practice when it comes to denouncing those different from what we are.

When Wan Azlee wrote a piece about how a person can be gay and a Muslim, I couldn’t help but think and read up, since that is what Muslims were encouraged to do first. Pang Khee Teik was told that he should not comment on Muslims being gay; he was criticised for butting in on what was deemed an Islamic issue.

If the same basis of logic was to be applied then, can I ask all Muslims to shut up about the Christian Bible being published in Malay?

When the temple issue came up in Shah Alam, can the government then tell the cow head-carrying pogrom that it was a Hindu issue?

My thoughts on the issues of religious belief butting in on a way of life are simple. Read through your texts and go back to your basics. What makes a person a Muslim?

To be a Muslim, all you need to do is say the syahadah, fast during Ramadhan, pray five times a day, pay the fitrah tithe and go for Haj if you are able. So tell me, dearest fellow Muslims, where exactly is this straight/gay dilemma in the basics of being a Muslim? As far back as 1994, Sisters in Islam was decrying that no punishment was meted out under hudud law for homosexuality. And since you all love to quote the Quran, here’s one you missed:

Al-Ahzab, verse 58:

And those who annoy believing men and women undeservedly, bear (on themselves) a calumny and a glaring sin.

Perhaps the “soft” men should point this out to the state of Terengganu as well.