In the wake of the controversial endorsement this week of the ASEAN
Human Rights Declaration, the wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
defended her country’s insistence on preserving the document’s “public
morality” clause, which rights groups have condemned as subjective and
discriminatory against women and sexual minorities.
Datin Seri Paduka Rosmah Mansor
told the Post in an exclusive interview the clause was something Malaysia
“wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, compromise... on high morality.”
“To me... human rights [are] the rights of an
individual based on what you believe in, based on your culture and your
religion. Fine, you want to recognise [LGBT rights], you think that’s right,
you don’t want to follow what is in your bible, fine, I’m not condemning
that... But this is the way we want to run our country. Based on... high
morality.
“You know why HIV and AIDS
occur... how it is being spread. Now the number of people suffering from HIV is
alarming. What is it you want? Do you want to allow this... or do you want to
contain it – then this is the way we all should live.”
In September, the Sin Chew Daily
and foreign media outlets such as The Huffington Post reported that the
Malaysian Education Ministry had supported a “guideline” for parents in how to
identify gay and lesbian children — claims the Malaysian government denied.
But Rosmah maintained: “You have
to nip [homosexuality] in the bud.
“If you don’t, when the time
comes and you have to stop [homosexuality], you will find it’s too late.”
Rosmah's claims have drawn the
ire of human-rights groups around Southeast Asia.
Dr Yuval Ginbar, a legal adviser
and ASEAN expert with Amnesty International, told the Post three of the
declaration's general principles, one of which was the “public morality”
clause, severely hampered human-rights protection.
The Southeast Asia Women’s Caucus
on ASEAN declared in September that public morality had not been defined in
international human-rights standards and its interpretation in daily life had
been largely based on dominant political, cultural and religious regimes.
Ivy Josiah, executive director of
the Malaysian NGO Women’s Aid Organisation, said it was “disappointing to
hear teachers will be encouraged to
conduct witch-hunts in schools looking for signs as to who is gay. This, in
effect, is an endorsement of promoting hatred.”
Cambodian Center for Human Rights
president Ou Virak labelled Rosmah’s comments “outrageous”.
“Come on, it’s 2012 – these are
bogus and extremely homophobic claims that HIV is a result of homosexuality –
the world knows this is not true,” he said. “This confirms our fears about the
declaration – that these clauses were included to give governments excuses to
not uphold universal principles of human rights.”
Thilaga Sulathireh, from the
ASEAN LGBT Caucus, said Malaysia’s views on public morality and homosexuality
were archaic and economically and politically motivated.
Contacted for comment yesterday,
the Malaysian embassy forwarded the request to the prime minister’s office,
which did not reply by press time.
Claire Knox
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