Recently, a note on Facebook caught my attention. Michelle over at The Meesh Experience had written a note in reply to an article Bernama published a few days ago, an article entitled “Homosexual’s Life Of Moral Decadence” (available here).

After reading the article (and her note), I was prompted to fire off a couple of missiles at Bernama’s way - namely for the horribly self-righteous, inaccurate and utterly slanderous piece!

Dear Editor,

I refer to a recent piece by one of your journalist entitled “Homosexual’s Life Of Moral Decadence”, written by Melati Mohd Ariff.

It is beyond comprehension how a national new agency is able to publish an article that is so obviously slanted and judgemental. Your article goes against every journalistic creed. Whatever happened to research, neutrality, and objectivity?

Or as Bernama turned into the mouthpiece-blog of a pompous and self-righteous individual?

“In the West, the morally wrong and corrupt homosexual act has turned into a sort of plague, spreading its tentacles far and wide, engulfing individuals with the tendency of adopting this immoral self-indulgence.”

A person’s sexual orientation is their private choice - if that is self-indulgence, then why not? Should anyone tell another person who they can or cannot fall in love with, spend the rest of their lives with? The writer shows little knowledge to the actual workings of a human psyche when it comes to relationship. Homosexuality isn’t just about sex; it is also about the heart.

“This act, which is like a malignant cancer, should not be allowed to spread its tentacles, as it threatens to bring destruction and devastation to the society.”

For your information, cancer is malignant so your sub-editors are not doing a very good job. That aside, has Europe been destroyed and devastated? On the contrary, in countries like Netherlands, Belgium and now, Spain where gay marriages and relationships are approved legally, people enjoy a high standard of life, good public transportation, low crime rate and excellent education/culture exposure.

Can we say the same for Malaysia where our crime rate has increased over the years, our education is lacking in many ways (to say the least) and our public transportation is almost non-existent? This coupled with the fact that we don’t have a very high standard of living, more of a high inflation rate.

“Not everyone wants to see the country to be overwhelmed by the influx of moral decadence that erupt from those who are out to draw the people into the dark ages of morality.”

So a homosexual who is God-fearing and law-abiding is morally decadent compared to a rapist, a drug addict, a man who rapes his granddaughter, a wife beater…?

We are living in the dark ages of morality but it isn’t because of homosexuals. As far as I know, many homosexuals in Malaysia are still closeted and they are law-abiding citizens. The dark ages of morality your writer speaks of comes from self-righteous and overbearing individuals who ignore the real cause of the problem and choose innocent people as scapegoats.

Also, I have this to add - can you please send your reporter, Ms Melati Mohd Ariff back to journalism school and a reputable one at that? She lacks objectivity, and her article is poorly researched. Has she lived in the West? Has she encountered or spoken to homosexuals? Or is she writing this article based on stereotypes and what religious men out there say? Perhaps the article was written to slander homosexuals in light of the recent arrest of a prominent man accused of sodomy.

Still, it lacks many things and as such, this article of hers is an embarrassment to all journalists, even one was trained like myself. What’s worse is that people abroad reading this laugh at how ridiculous and extreme we sound…extreme like those fanatics who scream for jihad at any sign of provocation - big or little.

Your news agency has become a huge disappointment over the years and particularly now, with such articles. Wake up and smell the coffee. As a news agency, you have a code of ethics to follow or have you lost sight of that as well? If you have, your agency is only contributing to the “dark ages of morality” in Malaysia.

Sincerely,
Mabel Teoh, Switzerland.

The recent reactions in Malaysia to the fuel hikes was…disappointing for me, to say the least. I had hoped that the previous year’s fuel hike would have thought Malaysians a thing or two about energy, fuel and consumption globally. I guess not.

So I did what was naturally - I wrote to the papers. It is one of the longest letters I have written so I don’t know if they’ll cut it or even publish it. O’well…

I read with interest the many articles relating to the reactions to the recent fuel and electricity hikes in Malaysia. I used to think that the fuel hike was a joke, that I was a suffering middle-class worker, and that we as a producer of oil should not have to deal with increases but I was wrong in many ways.

Over the years, the demand for oil and natural gas (read: consumption) has increased more than twofold. In 1965, the world consumption hit 31,240 barrels daily (refer to this website for more details - ). In 2006, globally, we consume 83,719 barrels daily. Compare this with the oil production of 31,802 barrels daily in 1965 to 81,663 barrels daily in 2006.

It is very clear, we consume more than we can produce. The increase in fuel prices is and was inevitable. Oil is not a commodity that lasts forever. It is only a matter of time before we see a drop in production and before our natural resources run out. Do we want to wait till then to do something about it?

Isn’t it time we stop whining and complaining about how unfair life is treating us and do some serious soul searching about our lifestyle and how we approach fuel & energy consumption?

For those of us who complain that “fuel is expensive, electricity rates are crazy, and because of that, we are suffering”, ask yourselves this:

…is your car fuel efficient?
…do you eat out all the time at moderate to expensive places?
…do you waste energy by leaving the lights on all day long, turning your air-conditioning on to its maximum capacity for hours on end, buy non-energy efficient appliances?
…have you considered car pooling or public transport?
…have you spoken to your employers about getting fair pay and fair benefits?
…do you patronize unethical business owners and hawker stalls?
…have you demand that your government expand their budget to include research and development on alternative fuel and sustainable energy sources?
…do you drive even though you can walk?

To those who say that people living abroad are not affected by this, think again. Yes, cars here may be cheaper in Europe but in the long run, I pay more for fuel, maintenance, tax, insurance, toll charges, and parking than any Malaysian ever will in Malaysia. It can cost up to 100 CHF just to get someone to change the oil for my car, and 500 CHF per month for just for parking my car in front of my house. Recently, my trip to Marseille (South France) cost me nearly 150 euroes of fuel for 500 km. So what do people here do about that? They only use a car when it’s necessary! I don’t even own a car for that matter because it’s simply better to not have one. If we really need one, we borrow from my hubby’s relatives. Public transport is the way to go here - buses, trains, trams, and even ferries. Either that or I walk which I did precious little in Malaysia because I was like everyone else; “it’s simply faster to drive”. It isn’t and it’s a waste of fuel.

Yes, public transportation in Malaysia is horrid, to say the least in comparison to the Swiss network. But understand that Malaysian public transportation is mostly privatised and thus relies on profit & demand to make improvements to the system, service as well as network. If the people avoid using public transportation and demand that the Government step in and pump money into public transportation, then why privatize it in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better if the Government took back everything? Even then, are we going to encourage the whole “the Government will bail you out if you’re not making a profit” attitude among service providers?

Also, once that is done, how many of us do take the public transport to work every day? For those who complain that it’s still not doing anything to improve it - they expect timetables, better routes and networks, punctuality - I have a little tidbit for you. Rome was not built in one day. Instead, choose to direct your complaints to the right people and while you’re at it, give some suggestions to improve the system. Don’t just complaint. Be patient and bear with it. The Swiss train network wasn’t always at its best. But like everything else, it had to start from somewhere.

As for increase in other items now that fuel has gone up, well, I think it’s a blessing in disguise. Instead of eating out and the whole famous mamak culture we are known for - which is rather unhealthy given the high fat, high salt, high sugar “goodies” that they afford - Malaysians can now opt, with real reason, to eat at home more often. This gives them a chance to cook healthier meals (if not learn how to cook) and spend more bonding time with the family as well as friends. If you think I’m advocating 100% eat at home, no, I don’t mean that. You can still eat out, just don’t do it so often and be more selective. If the hawker stall owner is charging you an arm and a leg for a bowl of noodles with nothing, then why are you even going to that hawker stall?

And no, being abroad, I do not have it easier. Dollar to dollar, I pay about 50 to 90 CHF per kilo of meat, 15 to 30 CHF per kilo of vegetables and fruits, and 20 to 40 CHF per kilo of dairy goods. Eating out for two people can cost between 16 to 30 CHF (more if we decide to go to a posh restaurant which we haven’t). All this on one person’s income. So yes, the fuel increase globally affects me as well. Rice here costs just as much as pasta and in general, everything has gone up but we deal with it and cut costs wherever we can. If you want to talk about who is affected most by this fuel hike, speak to the poor and those in the lower echelons of society.

At the end of the day, what I really want to know is this:

- What are you going to do about it as a citizen and consumer?
- What is the Government doing with the savings?

This is unbelievable!

21st century and I’m being told that my child can’t be a citizen just because I’m a woman!

Dear Editor,

It has become obvious that our Government cares nothing for the welfare and rights of Malaysian women - abroad or local. Just today, I received a confirmation on something that I’ve known about for a long time but didn’t seem important until now.

I am on my way to becoming a first time mother and as such as interested to know what the Government thought of me wanting Malaysian citizenship for my child. The Malaysian embassy in Bern, Switzerland confirmed my thoughts and they were shocking as well as shameful.

In today, the 21st century, it is widely accepted that women have equal opportunities and rights as men - the opportunity to participate in the workforce, political and social arena and basically be included in what used to be deemed as “solely for men”. So what was I to think when I was told that my child cannot be a citizen because I’m a woman but if I was a man, it wouldn’t be an issue?

In much of Europe, citizenship is given to a child with at least one parent who is a citizen IRRESPECTIVE of gender. However, according to Malaysian law, a child born abroad can only be registered as a citizen if the father is a Malaysian. Well, what about the mothers? Aren’t we citizens as well? Do we not have the same value as men?

Or is the Government trying to solidify the Asian (specifically Chinese) notion that when a woman marries, she “belongs” to her husband and not her own family anymore? That she is just an “object”? That she would embrace her husband’s new home without any qualms and forget all about her own home?

Is that how we women are thought of in reality - socially and politically? Do we really forget about our home country even though we’ve married foreign men and gone overseas? Perhaps this is just the opinions of shallow-minded people but it should NOT be taken as a reflection of reality.

There are many women out there who are living abroad with their husbands and families yet still hold onto their citizenship and return on a regular basis, as tourists or just to visit their loved ones in Malaysia. There are others like myself who go around sharing and telling people about the beauty of my beloved country, encouraging people who have never left Europe to brave a trip halfway across the world just to experience what I have growing up as an Anak Malaysia.

Much has been said about the things that has been done for the women of this country - equal opportunities, equal rights - yet in its most basic right - citizenship as promised by the constitution - we women of Malaysia have lost it.

Gender discrimination. I never thought I would have to tell people around the world that my child can never be a Malaysian because my Government practices gender discrimination.

When a young girl writes to the papers about getting catcalled and sexually harassed at the post office, it is an insult NOT a compliment! Having moved to a country whereby men are very respectful of women, I find it disgusting to read of such behaviour in a country that professes to be cultured and modern.

So as usual, I decided to drop a little note about it with my new address. *beams*