MAHATHIR FACTOR NO LONGER ENOUGH – MALAYSIANS ARE A DEMANDING LOT: FOR BETTER OR WORSE, PAKATAN ESPECIALLY BERSATU, MUST WAKE UP FROM THEIR OWN ‘DENIAL SYNDROME’ – PICK UP THE GAUNTLET THROWN BY THE PEOPLE OR PERISH

Tourism minister Mohammadin Ketapi told reporters in Germany that there aren’t any gay people in Malaysia.

I can imagine how shocked the German reporters would get.

Their question was actually very simple: Will LGBT travelers be safe in Malaysia?

Any primary school student will answer an exam question that “all travelers will be safe in Malaysia”, unless he wants to fail the exam.

But, our minister has offered something quite unexpected.

“Homosexuals? I don’t think we have anything like that in our country. So I can’t tell whether the country is safe for them.”

Is it possible for a country of 30 million people to be completely devoid of homosexuals?

A study by sex authority Alfred Kinsey pointed out as early as the 1940s that homosexuals made up some 10% of humankind.

A more recent study showed that 8% of all males and 7% of all females were homosexuals.

If Malaysia were a part of this world, then there should be an estimate of 2 to 3 million LGBTs in the country.

Unless, of course, we are an out-of-this-world extraterrestrial nation, and that all the LGBTs we see in our midst are feigned.

Or perhaps our minister was just trying to amuse the people after the ruling coalition suffered two consecutive by-election defeats.

He not only said there were no homosexuals in the country, he even could not answer the question whether LGBTs would be safe traveling in Malaysia.

Sure enough our minister has a level of wisdom significantly higher than that of our primary school students. Unfortunately he seems to have denied all the problems the country faces, including LGBT which to him is a big problem.

Subconsciously, he thinks that by denying the problem, it will vanish on its own.

Mohammadin is not the only Pakatan Harapan minister suffering from this thing called “denial syndrome”.

Let’s take a look at how PH leaders talked about the dual defeats in Cameron Highlands and Semenyih by-elections.

Azmin said PH should not be apologetic for pushing the bumi agenda (like Umno, PAS?), while Lim Guan Eng said Umno-PAS were targeting non-Malays, and MCA and MIC being their accomplices must leave BN immediately (MCA again!).

Meanwhile PM Mahathir said the Umno-PAS marriage was to ensure Najib’s return and absolve him of his crime. (So, it’s all because of Najib!)

Please, any coffee shop analyst can tell why PH lost the elections, not because the opponents are getting stronger but PH has grown weaker!

The new government fails to fix the ailing economy or honor its election pledges. The leaders are either arrogant or under-performing, being unable to handle many issues properly, including the Hindu temple incident and abolition of death penalty.

Such weaknesses and issues have frustrated many people who have turned to Umno-PAS to teach the PH administration a lesson.

Unfortunately PH leaders fail to see why they lost in Cameron Highlands and Semenyih, squarely denying their own faults.

If there is any fault at all, it must not be theirs but others’.

The voters have made it clear once and again through ballot papers what have gone wrong with the government, but the denial syndrome has blinded the government of its weaknesses.

MYSINCHEW