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.