Go West, LGBT told

A university lecturer says one way to solve the LGBT culture is to ask them to migrate to the West.

PETALING JAYA: A university lecturer has a quick fix to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) culture.  Associate Professor Dr Samsul Adabi Mamat of UKM says these people should migrate to the West if they want to continue their lifestyle.

“Malaysians couldn’t digest this LGBT culture, therefore LGBT should migrate to the West to live this kind of lifestyle”, he said.

Samsul said early education on sexuality to the younger generation is important.

“Informative and accurate description of sexuality is crucial and we need to have views and opinions from the East as we can’t depend solely on views from the West as our cultures are different.

“We must follow the majority point of view. In Malaysia, LGBT will be judged based on religion and obviously the LGBT culture is against religion.

“They [LGBT] should be in the West if they don’t want to be isolated, because in Malaysia the majority of the people can’t accept the LGBT culture,” said Samsul.

Dr Ian Chai, a lecturer from Multimedia University Cyberjaya, feels that a subject on sexuality can be included into school syllabus when students reach a higher level of maturity like in Form 4 and 5.

“The syllabus should be informative… It should take a middle ground approach to educate the students.

“The syllabus should not demonise or encourage homosexuality. LGBT individuals deserve the right to be given help when needed,” said Chai.

“LGBT individuals should be allowed to seek help from compassionate counsellors if they desire to leave the LGBT lifestyle.”he said.

‘Don’t rely on pseudo-experts’

Shaani Abdullah, a human rights commissioner for Suhakam, is against the Education Ministry endorsing the guideline on LGBT as it was issued with no scientific basis.

He was against “profiling of any nature unless with scientific proof”.

Shaani agrees that sexuality content should be taught in schools, as well as universal values such as compassion and cooperation.

Pang Khee Teik, co-founder of Seksualiti Merdeka, said that the government should look more into scientifically updated researches and studies about homosexuality.

First of all, the authorities themselves must be clear on homosexuality before they start educating others. The government needs to be very open to new researches and provide up-to-date studies rather than relying on unreliable guidelines or studies from pseudo-experts and quacks.

“I believe many people don’t understand sexuality and most of them disagree or disapprove of homosexuality,” said Pang.

He said instead of endorsing guidelines to spot a homosexual, the government should solve the main problems first.

“Help the young LGBT; most of the young LGBT are being bullied. These young people not only have to face society but also their parents. Most of them got kicked out of the house for being homosexual.

“When the government starts endorsing these guidelines, parents will panic and will ask them (their homosexual children) to leave their home…

“Respect diversity, it is important to give equal rights, space and dignity to everyone even if they disagree,” Pang said.