PeterRS Posted July 18, 2023 Posted July 18, 2023 We all know that Malaysia is outwardly pretty homophobic. The country retains the old British colonial anti-sodomy law. Many religious and some political leaders profess to be very anti-gay. This even though many visitors find Kuala Lumpur quite a gay city, especially under the surface of that supposedly moral high ground. After the massive 1MDB corruption scandal which has seen the former Prime Minister jailed for 12 years and his shopaholic wife sentenced to 10 years, a scandal that lost the country US$4 billion, one might have thought the government would be happy to remain out of the headlines for a while. That scandal spread the globe and involved dirty deeds in the banking, entertainment and political worlds. It has been described as "one of the world's largest financial scandals." Now, though, thanks to a small Swiss watchmaker, the government will be back in court for what in most countries would be regarded as a trivial case. To celebrate Gay Pride, Swatch produced a limited edition of Pride-themed watches. On arrival in Malaysia, the government seized 174 of the watches worth over US$14,200. Apart from the gay element, the government's reasoning was that the watches violated the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984. Swatch is suing the government for the return of the watches on the basis that this was an illegal act as they are not a publication which can be prohibited under the Act. The case will go to court on Thursday (20th). While it will be interesting to see the arguments put forward by the government, it is highly unlikely that the government will easily give in. The headlines about its being in favour of promoting homosexuality will be anathema to its leadership. https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2612866/swatch-sues-malaysia-over-seized-pride-watches-says-local-media Quote
PeterRS Posted August 10, 2023 Author Posted August 10, 2023 Malaysia just cannot leave an issue alone! The government has now decreed that anyone who owns or sells the rainbow colour Swatch watches will face three years in jail, according to a statement from the law enforcement agency of the Interior Ministry today. Be caught wearing one for whatever reason and you get slapped with an additional 20,000 Ringgit fine (US$4,375). The statement claimed that the watches "may harm . . . the interests of the nation by promoting, supporting and normalising the LGBTQ+ movement that is not accepted by the general public." What is so ridiculous about that statement is that both Hong Kong and Singapore had the same British colonial anti-sodomy law on their statute books and both governments claimed for decades their populations would never accept a change in the law. Yet Hong Kong changed the law when it introduced a Bill of Rights in 1990 and not one of the many dozens of Chinese media outlets even commented negatively on it. After years of saying it needed to retain the law on the grounds of racial harmony within the city state, Singapore finally repealed the law earlier this year. In fact it was left with no grounds for maintaining it since the highest court ruled a year ago that aspects of the law could not in fact be enforced. So, despite the outrage shown by the small but very vocal evangelical Christian movement - but perhaps surprisingly not the far larger Muslim community - the government moved swiftly to change the law. 93 MPs voted for the repeal with only 3 voting against. One therefore wonders why it took Singapore so long to make that change! What is so idotic about Sections 377A and 377B of the Penal Code in Malaysia, just as it was in Hong Kong and Singapore, is that they do not exclusively apply to homosexuality. The interpretation of the law is discriminatory because oral sex and anal sex are totally banned irrespective of whether it is between two men, two women or a man and a woman. Now if the Malaysian government were to adhere to the law, every straight couple who indulged in oral sex would be contravening that law. And if it actually stated that men and women never practise either oral or anal sex, the world would surely laugh at it! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/10/owners-lgbt-swatch-watches-could-jailed-malaysia Quote
