The Malaysian Insight

MALAYSIA has to accept transgenders and change its attitude from seeing them as people who need to be rehabilitated, said Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) chief and former senior judge.

Mohd Hishamudin Md Yunus said society’s failure to accept that transgenders cannot be “cured” has led to widespread discrimination and violence towards them, making their plight a serious human rights issue.

Malaysia should look to Indonesia to study how a Muslim-majority country can fairly treat its transgender population, said Hishamudin, who had presided over a landmark transgender case when he was an appeals court judge. 

In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, authorities have gone so far as to establish an Islamic religious school, Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah, to serve the local transgender community.

In comparison, Malaysian religious authorities believe the physiological and biological conditions in transgenders can be cured through rehabilitation and medication.

“When religious figures attend programmes for transgenders, they usually talk about rehabilitation and re-orientating them to their so-called ‘original’ genders,” Hishamudin said on the sidelines of Suhakam’s human rights day celebration in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“This is wrong because according to medical research, the condition that creates this is something permanent within the individual.”

The World Health Organisation recently decided it will not classify being transgender or gender identity disorder (GID) as a “mental disorder”.

Transgender people have gender identities – the internal sense of being male or female – that do not match the sex they were assigned at birth.

The resulting mismatch between gender identity and reproductive organs cause these individuals severe distress and discomfort.

In a Negri Sembilan shariah court case that had attracted wide national attention, consultant psychiatrist Dr Deva Dass described transgender individual Muhammad Juzaili as a “female spirit trapped in a male body”.

Juzaili and two others had been fined for cross-dressing as women.

In a 2014 landmark decision, the Court of Appeals ruled in favour of three transgenders and declared the state law was discriminatory against those suffering from GID.

That decision was reached not because of medical reasons, but found the state enactment on cross dressing contravened the federal constitution on equality and freedom of expression.

Hishamudin said politicians, religious authorities and society at large must accept that from the medical perspective, these individuals cannot be “changed to their original genders”.

“They have to accept the existence of this third gender and the authorities must stop being ignorant.

“To respect their rights, hospital wards, prison lockups and bathrooms need to be provided for these individuals and the discrimination must stop.”

Although the government under Pakatan Harapan has improved in its treatment of these individuals compared to the former Barisan Nasional, more needs to be done, he said.

“Based on what has been stated by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid Yusof Rawa, it seems the current government is on the right track.

“However, because of our conservative brand of Islam and our culture, this issue is still taboo. We are still not ready to accept transgenders.”

Hishamudin believes just as Malaysian religious authorities are an obstacle, the Islamic faith itself is a solution for this social challenge.

“If we study Islam deeply, it is a religion of compassion, mercy and justice. So, we should practice these values on our transgender community.” – December 11, 2019.