Former Klang MP Charles Santiago has taken aim at PAS for its salvos against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
In a statement today, he called on the party to cease its verbal attacks and focus on real problems that exist in states like Kelantan and Terengganu where it governs.
"PAS has been targeting the LGBT community recently when there are serious issues it needs to deal with in Kelantan and Terengganu.
“For example, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat has expressed concern over the high number of child sex abuse cases, totalling 59, recorded in Kelantan in 2022," Charles (above) said.
He added that 224 sexual crimes were reported in Kelantan in 2021.
"According to the media, there were 51 rape cases in the first seven months of 2021, and police said many of the victims were aged between 13 and 16 years old," said Charles.
He went on to say that poverty, particularly among the indigenous communities in these states, was another issue that needed to be tackled.
"News reports in 2021 say a shocking 100 percent of Orang Asli households in Terengganu live below the national poverty line income. Kelantan is in second place, with 83.3 percent of its indigenous community living in poverty.
"Instead of creating jobs to mitigate income losses and rising food prices, PAS prefers to spew venom against the minority LGBT people, which increases the risk of hate crimes and violence against them," said Charles, who served as Klang MP from 2008 to 2022.
Marzuk’s ‘analysis’
Yesterday, PAS MP Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (Perikatan Nasional-Pengkalan Chepa) shocked Dewan Rakyat with his analysis of the LGBT community.
He described the group’s lifestyle as "so perverted that it surpasses animal limits" (perbuatan songsang seperti ini melepasi batasan kehaiwanan).
“Bulls don't marry bulls, cows don't marry cows,” he said when debating the national unity index yesterday, before saying that DAP MPs did not speak up to “solve the LGBT issue”.
This came shortly after his party colleague, Kuantan MP Wan Razali Wan Nor, was forced by speaker Johari Abdul to retract his claim linking the women's march rally with the LGBT movement.
"It’s time for PAS to actually look at development issues in states that it runs on top of the rise in sexual crimes.
"Training its guns on the LGBT is a cheap tactic and won’t help create progress," added Charles. - Mkini
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