Seksualiti Merdeka: Activism, Advocacy or Popularity Contest? (by Hafidz Baharom)

Let me first start that yes, I am the openly gay Muslim writer mentioned by Yuki Choe in her blog and on Kakak Killjoy. That was obvious enough to many. I'll try and remain impersonal and not attack the personality of the people involved since, of course that would be unprofessional.

And I do apologize because a year back I was unprofessional in my commentary.

I got kicked out of Seksualiti Merdeka's events due to the fact that I had asked why the hell event invitations were made public on Facebook when someone could just post a hyperlink and everyone would be able to see it, including the Malaysian religious right wing conservatives on Facebook. And I did just that to prove my point. Next thing I know I'm getting a banning notice and an askance to remove the hyperlink, and then got kicked out of the Seksualiti Merdeka Facebook group.

For that I somehow got branded a terrorist.

Reading what she wrote, the first question that comes to mind would be: what took her so long?

Seksualiti Merdeka, for those of us who recall during its first inception in 2008, was an event to promote sexuality rights regardless of gender and sexual orientation. Now, somewhere down the line this evolved into being only about the lesbians, gays and transgenders in this nation, which purely shrinks the attendance market from a whopping 100 percent of the population to a mere 7 to 30 percent, with 7 to 10 percent being the LGT community and the other 20 to 23 percent being the straights who either care, are curious or dragged there by their LGT friends.

I'm not sure when, or who was consulted but it did happen. So instead of highlighting Malaysian sexuality rights violations, the organization has instead evolved to be one that focuses solely on the transgenders, gays and lesbians.

And somewhere down the line as well, they suddenly have business cards too.

 My problem with Seksualiti Merdeka as of now is very simple. With 3 years done and nothing to show for themselves, just what exactly is their plan?

What future does this program hold other than concerts to bring in donations, forums with no proper conclusions or even miseducation of the public on transgender issues?

In fact, what was purely disturbing to read this morning was the fact that Seksualiti Merdeka has yet to sit down since last year's event for a post-mortem. But then again, one shouldn't be surprised since they have yet to update their blog since June 2011 either, with constant periods of inactivity that is worrisome, especially for such a large gathering of NGOs.

But I will state that all is not lost. Seksualiti Merdeka needs to get back to their roots when they discussed not the matters of purely sexual orientation and gender issues, but the matter of sex itself. When you have people in courts in Malaysia being able to sue for divorce because their husbands used a dildo, or when a spouse is accused of giving someone HIV/AIDS or perhaps even the issues that most Malaysians lack understanding altogether; just why exactly is our government so interested in bedside manners?

There is a need for Seksualiti Merdeka, an advocate for sexuality rights, to come out and say there is nothing wrong with kinky sex. There is nothing wrong with gay sex or role playing or whatever else people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms as long as it is in fact consensual.

So here are a few suggestions I'd like Seksualiti Merdeka to consider working on:

• With elections drawing near, just how much power does Seksualiti Merdeka have in swaying votes? Is Seksualiti Merdeka engaging the political parties to ask which of them support sexuality rights? Because as far as I can tell, the only party to ever mention this is Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
• Has there ever been an accounting made public on the finances of Seksualiti Merdeka?
• When on Earth are you guys going to talk about the power of the 'pink dollar', and when the heck are you guys going to hold a survey to use that power? After all, this was the first thing Milk did, which gained him the support of Labour unions as well.
• Seksualiti Merdeka needs to also consider a plan for social change within the community, with focus towards some form of professionalism. There needs to be a push for the LGBT community to conduct research into trends, health issues and perhaps even sexual issues in Malaysia itself. Case in point, when the late Benjamin McKay himself went into shopping malls and approached guys, to the point of being able to present his case study in 2008.
• There is also truly a need for SM to again, bring in the heterosexual people back into the fold, and not state that "they can plan their own event", a saying I recall being said when I brought this matter up a year ago.

In summary, I know the steering committee of Seksualiti Merdeka. And I know that they are doing what they can to somehow come up with a way to make things work. However, ill-advised and ill-conceived ideas, no matter whatever urgency you are up against, are not the way to move forward. It reeks too far of desperation and an indignant focus on simply wanting to remain popular while sacrificing the advocacy you want to achieve.

If Seksualiti Merdeka wants to remain a movement for advocacy and activism, then they truly need to move their agenda forward through increased relevancy because as of now, with multiple groups spawning around to do their own thing, Seksualiti Merdeka is in danger of becoming a dinosaur which will sooner or later become extinct.