Petition: sexuality rights in Malaysia

Dear friends,

RE: PETITION FOR SEXUALITY RIGHTS IN MALAYSIA

We hope this e-mail finds you well and in good spirits. You will recall that barely two months ago, Alina Rastam and Shanon Shah wrote and disseminated a Letter to the Editor entitled "Don't Let Homophobia Undermine Human Rights". We are pleased to report to you that we managed to get more than 140 individual signatures and 2 organizational endorsements within 24 hours of writing the letter. Even after submission to the media, we kept getting signatures. The letter eventually carried more than 200 signatures.

The letter was carried by Malaysiakini the very next day. It was also really encouraging that there were several other letters written in defense of sexuality rights, written by Malaysians, published in both the independent and government-linked press, like The Star.

We therefore felt that it was only logical to expand the framework of our letter into a full-blown petition, calling for unconditional respect of sexuality rights for all who live in Malaysia. We hope to get your support again. Please sign onto the petition, and call on all your friends and networks to sign on as well. We are hoping to collect as many signatures as possible - 10,000 signatures? 100,000? 1,000,000? This is where we will all play a part in this petition - within the next couple of months, and then have a public event to launch it on a significant date this year. Could be any significant date between 25 November and 10 December, which commemorates the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. 10 December is World Human Rights Day.

Our aim is simple - to get Malaysians from all walks of life, who abhor all kinds of discrimination on the basis of sexuality and sexual identity, to have a space to take a public stand in solidarity with each other. The issue of sexuality is being used as bait by the State, the leading political parties and several discriminatory organizations. As we approach Merdeka and Malaysia Day celebrations on 31 August and 16 September, it is important for us to stress that we respect all kinds of diversity in Malaysia, from racial, to religious, to political, to sexual. If you believe and want to affirm this, please give this petition your full support. It's about time we had our voices heard.

We do make one initial request though. This petition is an open petition. Anyone from anywhere in the world can sign if they support it. But, we'd like to especially focus on getting signatures from our fellow Malaysians first. As citizens of a country where freedom of expression and information is curtailed in so many areas - from the environment, to violence against women, to political participation - it is imperative that we show each other support and encouragement by making this a Malaysian-led initiative. We welcome solidarity from around the world, but we hope this point is understood in the best light.

Thank you for your support, and semoga kita sama-sama membina Malaysia yang menghormati hak dan maruah kita semua!

Ikhlas,

Alina Rastam, Shanon Shah dan tan beng hui

[Text below also found here.]

To: The Malaysian Government

We, the undersigned, call upon the Malaysian Government to stop policing the moral and sexual practices and behaviour of Malaysian citizens; and violating the human rights of Malaysians by persecuting them for engaging in behaviours such as cross-dressing and (for women) dressing in 'unacceptable' ways; or sexual practices such as consensual anal and oral sex.

There are a whole host of laws which are used by the State to control and regulate the sexual and moral behaviours and practices of Malaysians. These include:

• Section 377A of the Penal Code which defines sodomy (or anal intercourse) and fellatio (oral sex) as 'unnatural offences'.
• Those convicted of these acts – whether in consensual or non-consensual situations – can be sentenced to up to 20 years jail and whipped.
• The Minor Offences Act which can be used against those whom the authorities view as behaving "inappropriately" in public.
• Syariah laws which criminalise 'khalwat' (being in close proximity with a person of the opposite sex who is not a relation) and 'zina' (adultery); as well as cross-dressing and homosexual sex.

While we understand that some people disapprove of these acts or behaviours, we believe that these are essentially matters of personal conscience, and it should be left to the persons concerned to decide on them for themselves. It is not the State's role to play moral guardian to the people or to dictate to them how they should express their sexuality.

There have been many instances in which the State has persecuted Malaysians on the grounds of alleged sexual or moral misconduct. These include:

• The 12-day jail term imposed on four women dancers at Zouk Nightclub in 2004, who were charged with behaving inappropriately in public.
• The raid at Zouk Nightclub in 2005 where religious authorities rounded up Muslim patrons and detained them at their headquarters for up to 10 hours on the grounds assessing whether they had flouted Islamic laws of behaviour. The women patrons, for example, were forced to parade in front of the religious officers, ostensibly so that the officers could ascertain whether they were dressed appropriately according to Islamic regulations.
• The persistent harassment of transsexuals and transvestites by the police and religious officers. The case of Ayu, a male-to-female transsexual who was seriously assaulted by state religious officers in Malacca in 2007, to the point that she had to have emergency abdominal operation, is an example of the brutality which members of this community have been subjected to by the authorities. The recurrent raids of functions and gatherings organized by transsexual communities also constitute serious harassment.
• The arrest of politician Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 and 2008 on the charge of sodomy.

We see such incidents as constituting a violation of human rights by the State; and as being in direct contravention to international standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that no one should be discriminated against for any reason.

We stress that this issue is a larger one than that of 'gay rights.' The laws on sodomy and fellatio, for example, means that heterosexuals who engage in these practices can also be targeted, not just homosexuals. And whether or not one is directly affected by these laws, the fact that the State is violating the human rights of many citizens on the grounds of sexual and moral misconduct should be of concern to all who support social justice.

We call upon the Malaysian Government to:

• abolish all laws that criminalise sexual practices between consenting adults.
• dismantle State institutions or initiatives that were established with the purpose of regulating and monitoring people's sexual or moral behaviour inconsensual situations.
• cease all persecution of and discrimination against sexual minorities such as homosexuals, bisexuals, intersexed, transsexuals and transvestites, and transgendered people.

Initiated by: Alina Rastam, Shanon Shah and tan beng hui