Politics of diversion.

Recently, if one follows closely with the news, it would be impossible not to notice the sudden alarm on the LGBTIQ issue by the government and some parties. Out of the blue, the Department of Information (which comes under the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture) has decided to BAN anything in regard of the LGBTIQ community from the radio and TV. Another example would be that the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin referring LGBT as a sexual orientation disorder.

On 17^th May 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders; now we have an EDUCATION MINISTER come telling us that homosexuality it is a sexual orientation disorder? What does that tell you? The very fact that a person no less than a minister (mind you, an EDUCATION minister!) has uttered such statement is a proof that he doesn't educate himself. Should he be allowed to hold that position in the future? Now I am not sure if we should ban LGBT or ban him? Or should WHO be BANNED as well?

Since an international body has given statement that homosexuality is no longer a mental disorder MORE THAN A DECADE AGO, so what is the point of allocating how many thousands of the Rakyat's money into "curing" something that is not even an illness at all? Is that a misuse of public fund? Tell me otherwise.

The mysterious and closeted world of LGBTIQ makes people come up with various sort of stories and myth. Some people believe that LGBTIQ-ism can spread like virus; most religion institutes regard it as something WRONG. Thus, I would not be surprised that most people will agree that BANNING LGBTIQ-ism on the mass media is one way to “curb” the “illness”, just like banning cigarette advertisement (but mind you, I am still seeing Mildseven and the new 501 thing in 7-11 outlet; of course everyone understands that revenue one can generate from the industry can be very attractive indeed. And smoking is HARAM by the way.) But then again, does it work that way?

Many people may not realize that being part of LGBTIQ community is nothing cool, it is not a fashion and it is certainly not something glamorous. We are talking about sexual orientation for heaven sake! People don’t just wake up next day and suddenly prefer to hang out with the same sex just because someone watched GLEE or The Ellen DeGeneres Show the day before? In fact, there is hardly any major popular show that goes by something like How homosexuality improves my life or Trans-sexuality: The alternatives lifestyle. (I wonder if there is any program that starts off with someone saying something like: Hei, my name is John and I am gay.) Plus, there is not much of LGBTIQ people featured on the media, why the Uh & Ah to ban it? Sometimes, one may not even know the person standing or living next to him/her is not straight! Gay/ lesbian people don’t wear a tag telling the rest of the world that he/she is gay/lesbian, so as any other straight people!

I am not sure if LGBTIQ-ism is something some people are born with, or it could be due to the surrounding such as food hormones and psychological conditioning. There is so far no well established reason on why people “turning into” part of the LGBTIQ community. Why doing the BAN when LGBTIQ is not even a mental disorder or some major social problem?

Let’s forget about whether LGBT is right or wrong, have anyone ever thought of why the sudden LGBT fuss when there are tones more serious problem yet to be addressed? Let’s not rewind too deep into the history book, the recent one includes the LYNAS rare earth refinery plant in Gebeng, the call for clean and fair election as being raised by BERSIH 2.0, the conflicts of interest on government projects, and a few to name. Why is that so urgent to address such “problem” that has been there all the time?

One highly possible reason is that the LGBTIQ issue has been used as a decoy to divert the attention of the people from the OTHER more serious matters simply because election is just around the corner. The ruling government wanted to be seen as the Good Samaritan for the religious institute and the rest of people for fight against LGBTIQ in a country dominated by a majority of Muslim. These people will think of anything to gain more votes from the bigger community. At the end, it is just nothing more than the politics of diversion.

I just feel that people should not solely count on one information source to make up their minds on certain issues. Plus it is also very essential to give a second thought on the credibility of any information.  

(Ohya, if banning LGBTIQ-ism on the basis of negative influences is valid enough, how about banning fat people on TV as well? If the people could have “learned” to adopt LGBTIQ-ism, they could also have “learned” to adopt obesity, thinking that it is something cool or worth trying? Who knows? The banning of fat people on mass media may push for a significant effect on combating obesity in the country?)

ps: Personally I do not find myself an alien from anyone else apart from one tiny part of my life: sexuality. Like any other people, I do believe in love and passion for life. What I do on bed is nothing much of others business, but I do find there is something not right with incest and rape, as well as a pair of loose slacks.

(Writing this for Seksualiti Merdeka thingy... Ai... I wanna pening liao. When can I write like Dina Zaman or Anthony Teoh?)