Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom: In Defense of the LGBT community
(On the Question and Right to be Left Alone, to be Happy and the Freedom to Express Oneself)

by Jose Mario De Vega

I refer to the PAS Youth chief’s latest exhortation with regard to the raging debate about the rights of the lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Seksualiti Merdeka as the recognized non-government organization (NGO) who spearheaded this crusade is in the forefront of this controversy facing the nation.

I vehemently disagree to the apparently self-righteous advice of Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi who slammed the said movement and correspondingly asked it to cancel its programme”. Consequently, he directly accused the movement of fighting an immoral battle.
I condemn those characters for their “holier than thou” moral brouhaha. What is their moral right to tell a bunch or a group of people of how those individuals will going to live and lead their lives and conduct their moral ways?

Does they has, all the monopoly of good moral character and ethical virtues?

May I remind them for the nth time that this country is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and inter-faith based community! The principal principle wherein this nation was founded on is the doctrine of Unity in diversity. This country is secular and the fundamental law; nonetheless sanctioned the truthfulness of that legal set-up.

The equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution is anti-sexism, anti-discrimination, anti-racism and against all forms of cruelty. It is a document of justice, equality and fairness.

It is not an instrument written to accommodate merely a set of individuals or neither it is a document designed simply to please a specific class or a group of people. Far from it, such ideas are alien from the very intention of the charter. There is no such thing in its provisions as exclusivity or specificity; rather in truth and in fact, it applies equally to both you and me.

The Constitution is the fundamental law of the land. As a basic precept, it upholds the principle of generality; which means that it applies to all citizens.

Those people who demand for the movement to “shut down and not to proceed with its campaign which called for freedom in their Western lifestyle and which was against local norms and culture” is not only misplaced, but totally devoid of logic and bereft of merit.
The call is utterly malicious, judgmental and discriminatory by virtue of the fact that it blatantly accuses a segment of the people or a group of individuals in society of gross immorality and grave unethical conduct. The unjust claim does not bode well for goodwill, communitarian understanding and societal harmony, but rather it spawns and encourages social division, mistrust, distance, ignorance, arrogance and indeed, apathy.

The untenable and immoral accusation of the movement’s “freedom in their Western lifestyle” is completely fallacious by reason of the logical fact that it is a hasty generalization and/or a sweeping statement not supported by empirical data and verifiable facts.

The argument, if ever it could be accepted as one, is based on a baseless accusation.

The baseless claim that Seksualiti Merdeka’s programme is against local norms and culture is at best a laughable assertion and at worst a complete idiotic pronouncement!

Anthropology has taught us that neither norms nor culture is fixed or static. It changed and undergoes various transformation so as history and society and so as man himself as time goes by. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: The only permanent in this world is change.

The dichotomy of the individual and that of society has long been settled by both sociology and anthropology. The presence of the varied elements is precisely one of the key ingredients for society to grow and develop.

Such society would undeniably be vibrant, humane, accommodative to change and refreshingly adaptive to the prevailing circumstances.

It is my fervent belief that this gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender are our fellow human beings; the only difference is that we are certain of our sexual orientation and gender affiliation.
They also deserve to be loved and cherished. It is their inherent natural human right to love and be loved, regardless and irrespective of their abnormalities, deformities and physiological-sexual limitations.

As Pang Khee Teik (one of the founders of Seksualiti Merdeka) said:

We still have rights as human beings and, honestly, I genuinely believe that we are not doing anything wrong. We are not hurting anyone nor are we harming anyone.

Further, he added that their movement is nothing more than a “platform to create understanding for the marginalized and misunderstood community”.

Lastly, he categorically stated that their objective is not to promote homosexuality, “but a promotion of people who understand sexuality and those who accept themselves.”

Society’s maturity and degree of consciousness could be determined in a sense on the level of its tolerance and the depth of its acceptance with regard to this discriminated and ostracized group of its citizens.

In the immortal words of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.:

Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally express your wishes in law and sweep away all opposition…But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas…that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution.

Lastly, I would like also to register my extreme dissenting opinion to those individuals who are protesting the impending concert of Elton John.

What is wrong with music?

Or are they protesting this coming event because the musician under discussion is a known gay or bisexual? What is wrong if ever the singer is a bisexual or a gay? Does it means that those who are “straight” who went to John’s concert upon hearing him sung would end up as “crooked”?

This is preposterous!

Francois Marie Arouet, famously known all over the world as Voltaire said:

I may not agree to the words you are saying, but I shall going to defend to death your right to say it.

Why? In protecting the very ideas that we love and cherish, we must also extend the same protection to the very ideas that we hate and abhor. Let a thousand flowers bloom! And may the best ideas and school of thought win after a strenuous, unlimited and free public discourse!

This is a free country. You don’t want to go to the concert, then don’t go; but don’t condemn the concert or the musician or those people who intend to attend the said event. Don’t tread on me! Mind your own business!

The constitution, so as the international law and various convention guaranteed my right to believe or not to believe, the right to discourse or to shut up, the right to express or not and the right to be free and be happy!

Henceforth, take a walk! Leave me alone! Don’t bother us!

Jose Mario Dolor De Vega

November 3, 2011
Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

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