Idea Transcript
This is the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Kuga Thas, Angela M. (2013) No right to live? Malaysia’s Islam and implications for its sexual minority storytellers. In Fairbairn, G.J. & Fisher, R. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 4th Global Conference: Storytelling, InterDisciplinary.Net, Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 1-21. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/64539/
c Copyright 2013 Angela M. Kuga Thas
License: Creative Commons: Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Australia
Notice: Changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document. For a definitive version of this work, please refer to the published source: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/wpcontent/uploads/2013/04/Thas.pdf
No Right to Live? Malaysia’s Islam and Implications for its Sexual Minority Storytellers Angela M. Kuga Thas Abstract This paper discusses the fast emerging challenges for Malay and Muslim sexual minority storytellers in the face of an aggressive state-sponsored Islamisation of a constitutionally secular Malaysia. I examine the case of Azwan Ismail, a gay Malay and Muslim Malaysian who took part in the local ‘It Gets Better’ Project, initiated in December 2010 by Seksualiti Merdeka (an annual sexuality rights festival) and who suffered an onslaught of hostile comments from fellow Malay Muslims. In this paper, I ask how a message aimed at discouraging suicidal tendencies among sexual minority teenagers can go so wrong. In discussing the contradictions between Azwan’s constructions of self and the expectations others have of him, I highlight the challenges for Azwan’s existential self. For storytellers who are vulnerable if visible, the inevitable sharing of a personal story with unintended and hostile audiences when placed online, can have significant repercussions. The purist Sunni Islam agenda in Malaysia not only rejects the human rights of the sexual minority in Malaysia but has influenced and is often a leading hostile voice in both regional and international blocs. This self-righteous and supremacist political Islam fosters a more disabling environment for vulnerable, minority communities and their human rights. It creates a harsher reality for the sexual minority that manifests in State-endorsed discrimination, compulsory counselling, forced rehabilitation and their criminalisation. It places the right of the sexual minority to live within such a community in doubt. I draw on existing literature on how personal stories have historically been used to advance human rights. Included too, is the signifance and implications of the work by social psychologists in explaining this loss of credibility of personal stories. I then advance an analytical framework that will allow storytelling as a very individual form of witnessing to reclaim and regain its ‘truth to power’. Key Words: Malaysia, existentialism, storytelling, human rights, sexual minority, credibility, authenticity, intimate public, LGBT. *****
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__________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction As tools of advocacy in a world of demand-driven rights,1 personal narratives are often positioned, or hoped that they are sufficiently positioned, to invoke empathy and compassion. Used since the 1990s, they often centre considerably on stories of violence and discrimination, and generally, on the violation of human rights. In this way, it resembles the traditional way of pushing for social change and social justice – by presenting evidence of violence and in utilising the victimisation discourse as witness. The validity of human rights for vulnerable communities such as the sexual minority therefore, often hinges on the level of severity of the violence visited on the victims. From this perspective, overt evidence of violence adds to the credibility of the narratives. Unfortunately, evidence of severe violence provides no assurance that discriminatory and persecutory policies and laws will change. This is because the rules by which a personal story must conform to, are rules dictated by those ‘receiving’ these stories.2 Herein lies the challenge for personal stories in countries where state governments and those in positions of power are increasingly rejecting the human rights language and discourse, and Malaysia is one such country.3 Malaysia is one of the 76 countries identified by Amnesty International where identity and private consensual sexual behaviour of these sexual minorities as adults, are criminalised. Discrimination and violence is targetted at this community through law, policies and programmes in the name of Islam and sanctioned by the State. Students who are identified as having homosexual or transsexual ‘tendencies’ are sent to programmes for ‘rehabilitation’ and parents are being recruited ‘to stem the spread of homosexuality and “sexual deviance”’. In such an increasingly aggressive context, the sexual minority are forced to negotiate between anonymity and ‘coming out’, to balance their need to exist as who they are without fear – to be true to themselves (an issue of authenticity) – and to secure their personal safety and basic rights. Without equal protection under the law, the sexual minority community only have their personal narratives as a resource and tool for advocacy. However, how stories are received often depends on who is telling the story. The more important you are, the higher the likelihood more people would listen to you,4 thereby weakening the link between narrative and justice.5 In countries like Malaysia which are hostile to the human rights of the sexual minority, personal stories struggle, in the words of Foucault, to ‘speak truth to power’, while too few ‘judges of narrative’ exercise their ‘will to know’.6 Theirs is a deliberate act against bearing witness to the truth, while vulnerable storytellers
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__________________________________________________________________ are expected to ‘conform’ or submit to the social norms dictated by the dominant group and those in power. The credibility of sexual minorities and their personal stories thus becomes that much more difficult to establish with those opposed to their human rights when this rejection is State-endorsed. This suggests a need for a perceptual reframing in communicating the human rights issues of the sexual minority in Malaysia, so that the ‘who’ of the storyteller (credibility of the source) no longer bears pivotal influence over the validity and believability of their stories (credibility of the content) in establishing common ground. 2. The Challenges of Translating ‘Usefulness’ into ‘Effectiveness’ Broadly speaking, there is a wealth of research on narratives and resistance to ‘imposed conformity’.7 Indeed, some research challenges the usefulness of certain kinds of narratives in certain circumstances. Research that has been particularly informative here comes from social psychologists who have interrogated the factors that persuade, influence or effect change in those who have strong attitudes (attitude strength) and extreme attitudes (attitude extremity) towards the attitude object—be this an issue, a person or a community.8 These researches lend insight into the variables that bear on attitude strength and attitude extremity. They suggest that, even with evidence of severe violence suffered by sexual minorities in Malaysia, the strong and extreme negative attitudes of purist and supremacist Sunni Islamists towards them, will not change.9 The more knowledgeable these extremists are about the sexual minority, the more convinced they will be of the ‘correctness’ of their negative attitudes and strongly hold on to these. The findings also suggest that rather than lessen their antagonism, more knowledge of the sexual minorities may actually increase the negativity of those in positions of power and influence towards them. In investigating testimony, credibility and explanatory coherence, Thagard argues that there are two possible pathways generally used to process responses to claims. When a claim is consistent with beliefs and the source is credible, people take a default pathway and automatically accept the claim made. ‘Otherwise, people enter a reflective pathway in which they evaluate the claim based on its explanatory coherence with everything else they believe.’10 Thagard also writes: Credibility is estimated on the basis of content and style as well as track record, not conditional probability. . . . unlike reliability, credibility is not a simple linear function of the truth ratio of utterances.11 This suggests that the truth of the experiences of human rights violations against the sexual minority in Malaysia and the frequency of such violations are not necessarily valid grounds to establish credibility. Another consideration that
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__________________________________________________________________ works against the human rights of the sexual minority is that there is no concept of cause and effect in storytelling.12 As such, the affective impact of stories on audiences is uncertain and audiences’ reactions are not feasibly predictable.13 How best then to tell an important story? How best then to communicate the personal narrative of the Malaysian sexual minority to advance a human rights agenda? In exploring the issues, tensions arise between voice and representation, between self-censorship and self-determination. These issues are core struggles in achieving individual freedom, and these very same struggles for individual autonomy are embedded in issues of authenticity. The former is commonly acknowledged as the supreme value of existentialist thought, and the latter as its ‘primary virtue’.14 3. The Case of Azwan Ismail’s ‘Saya gay, saya okay’ (I am gay, I am okay) The experience of Azwan Ismail in Seksualiti Merdeka’s (Sexuality Independence) ‘It Gets Better’ Project illustrates the reality of officially tolerated extremist hostility directed towards the sexual minority in Malaysia, especially the sexual minority who are both Malay and Muslim.15 The initiative was born out of concern that there is no committed effort to protect the human rights of Malaysian children and youth who are not strictly heterosexual and may be suicidal or who have attempted suicide. Of the 15 local contributions, four were placed online. Azwan Ismail’s video – It Gets Better in Malaysia: Azwan Ismail ‘Saya gay, saya okay’ (I am gay, I am okay) – was the second to be uploaded to YouTube on 15 December 2010. Within six days, it received 150,000 views and 3,400 comments, many of which were vicious and rude. Some threatened Azwan and Seksualiti Merdeka members with violence and murder.16 Others included calls to monitor the activities of homosexual groups. However, there were no corresponding demands for the criminalisation and prosecution of those who posted abusive and vulgar comments that threatened Malaysian citizens with violence and death. For example, although the Malay Muslim blogger, Zainol Abideen, who blogs as Mahaguru58, detailed how to kill Azwan Ismail the Islamic way,17 no charges were filed against Zainol. Azwan Ismail’s video was seen as boldly confessional and an affront to Islam by those opposed to it.18 For these audiences, it was deemed an act of treason for a Malay Muslim. In Malaysian writer Amir Muhammad’s view: Some people aren't appalled by the fact of Azwan Ismail's sexuality. What they are affronted by is that he's a person who's giving his own name, and being completely honest about what he wants to say.19
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__________________________________________________________________ For Azwan Ismail, his humanity was not only violated, persistent attempts were made to nullify his being. Yet, he blames no one for the resulting negative experiences20 and says instead: There was no representative from the Malay community, a Malay guy [within the project]. I wanted the project to show that the LGBT21 community consist of people from various backgrounds . . . that’s why I feel like I have to take part, want to take part. . . . If I could go back and change it, maybe I would not mention anything on Islam. This controversy, they tend to focus more on me being this Malay engineer, not about being a writer, poet or editor of this [Malay anthology on LGBT]. That’s one of the reasons why I want to have my name there. I’m involved, I am already a writer, I’m not like a total nobody. I’m already part of something. It is just right to put my name there.22 Azwan’s struggles epitomize existentialism. He draws meaning from his individually lived experiences that helps him decide how to live, whether and what to believe and what to do in ‘trying to remain true’ to living how he so wishes to. Azwan’s video and how he makes meaning of his participation in the project, are his attempts to ‘live authentically’ and his struggle between his being and his ‘not being’.23 In attempting to achieve his own ‘individual truth’, therein his individual freedom, Azwan resists being faceless within ‘the collective’ of the Malay Muslim society in Malaysia. The extreme reactions of the unintended audiences to Azwan Ismail’s video can be described in existentialist terms as ‘absurd’ and portrays what Hannah Arendt defines as, ‘the greatest injury a society can and does inflict’.24 They attempted to make Azwan Ismail ‘doubt the reality and validity of his own existence, to reduce him in his own eyes to the status of a non entity’.25 His message of being Malay Muslim, gay and ‘being okay’ was perceived to undermine the State’s and proIslamists’ political agenda in reinventing and purifying the identity of the Malaysian Malay Muslim. To date, Azwan continues to struggle to remain true to himself (an issue of authenticity), a struggle aptly described by Jackson as ‘not only a belonging but a becoming’, a continual flux of balance and adjustment of action and inaction, of autonomy and anonymity, to sustain and synthesize oneself as a subject in a world that subjugates one to other ends, a constant negotiation between being oneself and being othered.26 The hostile response to Azwan Ismail’s video illustrates the highly agitated context of the project. Malaysia is a country where democracy is fragile, where the
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__________________________________________________________________ independence of the judiciary is increasingly suspect, and where opportunities and spaces for voice to not only be articulated but also heard is shrinking.27 The emerging challenges point to a need for the development of an analytical framework that would help identify, ‘How best to communicate human rights issues of the sexual minority in such adverse circumstances?’ There are serious implications to consider before the personal stories of sexual minorities are told, if these stories are to effectively advance their human rights agenda in potentially hostile contexts. If the source, the storyteller who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, is considered non-credible by ‘the judges of narrative’ in Malaysia, in this case, primarily the purist-supremacist Malay Sunni Islamists,28 it becomes critical to explore how anonymous stories by the Malaysian sexual minority can be made credible for potentially hostile listeners. This challenge of establishing credibility seems to lie in the shaping or reframing of their personal stories to be consistent with the beliefs and value systems of the listeners. Such a shaping or reframing, however, can trouble the notion of authenticity for the storytellers who struggle to be true to themselves. Authenticity is an evaluative concept, and therefore value-laden in the judgement of the meaning of something.29 In discussing the nature of authenticity, Van Leeuwen asserts that it is subjective and never absolute. Van Leeuwen explains: Something can be called ‘authentic’ because it is thought to be true to the essence of something, to a revealed truth, a deeply felt sentiment, or the way these are worded or otherwise expressed. . . . Authenticity is about validity . . . accepted as a source of truth, beauty, sincerity and so on.30 Two aspects of authenticity surfaced quite strongly with Azwan Ismail as a gay Malay Muslim man: being ‘true to the person’ (his name, who he is, where he comes from) and ‘true to the experience’ (portrayal of the LGBT). Similarly, these two aspects became the very same qualities sought by hostile audiences in ‘judging’ the stories. This is because the sexual minority community are perceived as deliberately sexually deviant and more so if they are also Malay and Muslim. Homosexuality is seen merely as a choice, a lifestyle, a refusal to conform to expected social norms and to their interpretation of selected Quranic texts (for example, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah). The issue of authenticity for the hostile unintended audiences was not about being ‘a source of truth’ nor about being ‘a source of sincerity’. In their eyes, Azwan had failed to establish a common value and his message was deemed
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__________________________________________________________________ confrontational to the purist-supremacist Malay Sunni Islamists’ collective goal of Islamising the Malay.31 The missing dialogical dimension of ‘being for self and being for the other’ in Azwan’s ‘Saya gay, saya okay’ rendered his noble attempt as insignificant and shameful. His video was deemed ‘worthy’ of extreme negative attention, and recognition was effectively withheld. The question then that critically needs answering is, ‘How could Azwan Ismail’s video be authentic to him as the “storyteller” yet credible to a public of unpredictable audiences without putting himself on display and open to interrogation or attack?’ 4. Rejected Storytellers and Implications for Storytelling In many ways, the ‘It Gets Better’ Project in Malaysia possessed a number of elements for success. It attempted to convey a message of hope to suicidal youths of the Malaysian sexual minority community. While it is impossible to ascertain the success of the initiative in this respect, the project nonetheless contributed to a growing global movement of video projects, and hence, to a strengthening collective, worldwide voice of hope, an initiative by Dan Savage that began in September 2010.32 However, the anticipated contribution of the project to establishing common ground, in fact, a common world, with anyone who might be opposed to the human rights of the Malaysian sexual minority, quickly disintegrated with the onslaught of hate from hostile unintended audiences. This subjects even the possibility of storytelling by the sexual minority to radical doubt. The experience of Azwan Ismail exemplifies the great risk of accessing a public that comprises an intended audience (those who are struggling with their sexuality and who are suicidal) and an unintended audience (those who are not struggling with their sexuality and who are not suicidal). Since many who struggle with their sexuality and gender identity often invisibilise themselves or are only known within intimate circles, by default, it is social media platforms that become optimum channels for outreach. Paradoxically, these same channels increase the risk of inadvertently accessing a hostile ‘unintended audience’. Those who attacked Azwan Ismail are assumed to be those who are themselves not struggling with their sexuality and are not suicidal. They comprise a part of ‘the unintended audience’. If we accept the research findings of social psychologists described earlier and Thagard’s investigation into testimony, credibility and explanatory coherence, the question arises on how practical is it to plan for an ‘unintended audience’ when attempts to create ‘common ground’ so that strangers are able to identify with the storyteller (the source) and the content of her or his story are likely to fail? While great unpredictability may lie within an unintended audience, it is equally possible that such an audience holds a potentially empathetic one. Herein lies the importance of the deliberate creation of an
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__________________________________________________________________ ‘intimate public’ – the ‘affective scene of identification among strangers’ as described by Berlant.33 If planning for an ‘unintended audience’ is impractical and rife with unpredictability in their response to a story, creating middle ground seems to lie in the conscious attempt to create an intimate public amidst ‘unintended audiences’. Without a much more deliberate and contemplative attempt to create this intimate public,34 storytelling efforts to actively pursue a social relationship with others in spheres that offer the least choice and control, are no longer able to promise ‘a certain experience of belonging’ without risk. 5. Conclusion: Towards an Analytical Framework for Persuasive Human Rights Communication The preliminary analytical framework for more persuasive communication of human rights of vulnerable groups such as the Malaysian sexual minority is conceived based on Poletti’s examination of PostSecret as an intimate public.35 PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, where people mail in their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard.36 The idea is that people’s identification with a stranger’s secret creates an anonymous community of acceptance. Poletti suggests that: The authenticity of the postcards is secured through two distinct strategies: materiality, and the discourse of confession. In both cases, anonymity actually works for authentication, rather than against it, drawing on the audiences' pre-existing literacy in the confessional mode.37 Poletti’s analysis of PostSecret reveals that anonymity can lend to authenticity, and hence, play a positive role in the perceptual reframing of communicating human rights issues of the sexual minority in Malaysia. Additionally, her analysis demands that we consider two critical aspects: what would lend this perceptual reframing materiality and what form of discourse or pre-existing literacy should be used? Answers seem to lie both in the lived realities of the Malaysian sexual minority and a sophisticated in-depth analysis of their context (the wider world). To further develop and refine the analytical framework, my preliminary identification of the four key components – the positive role of anonymity, materiality, discourse (that draws on a pre-existing literacy to establish common value) and the contemplative creation of an intimate public – must be tested on the ground if the framework is to offer any new insights for practical action and in evaluating the communication of human rights through personal stories.
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Notes 1
Linde Zingaro, Speaking Out: Storytelling for Social Change (Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2009), 28. 2 Kay Schaffer & Sidonie Smith, Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 6, 27, 40–42 & 47. Also see, Sarita Srivastava & Margot Francis, ‘The Problem of “Authentic Experience”: Storytelling in Anti-Racist and Anti-Homophobic Education’. Critical Sociology 32 (2006): 275–307. 3 The Express Tribune Pakistan, ‘Pakistan opposes UN discussion on violence against LGBT’, The Express Tribune, 6 March 2012. Viewed 7 March, 2012. . 4 John Braithwaite, ‘Narrative and Compulsory Compassion’. Law & Social Inquiry 31 (2006): 428. 5 Iris Marion Young Inclusion and Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). See also Schaffer & Smith, Human Rights and Narrated Lives. 6 See Schaffer & Smith, Human Rights and Narrated Lives; also Michael Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression, and Intersubjectivity, (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2002), 19– 21; Srivastava & Francis, ‘The Problem of “Authentic Experience”’. 7 John Packwood, ‘Narratives of Identity and Resistance: Gay and Bisexual Men Living with HIV and AIDS’, Carleton University (Canada), 1993.; Denise Begnaud Watson ‘Casting on the Waters: Women's Narratives of Identity, Empowerment, and Resistance to Patriarchy’, (Texas A&M University, 2001); M. Humphreys & A.D. Brown, ‘Narratives of Organizational Identity and Identification: A Case Study of Hegemony and Resistance’, Organization Studies 23 (2002): 421–447; Ruth Linn ‘Mature Unwed Mothers: Narratives of Moral Resistance’. Reference and Research Book News 17 (2002); Elisabeth Springate, ‘Networks of Resistance: Digital Media, Storytelling, and Acts of Resistance to Sexual Assault’, (York University (Canada), 2005); Michael D. Wilson, ‘Writing Home: Indigenous Narratives of Resistance’, Reference and Research Book News, 23 (2008); Jill Cermele, ‘Telling Our Stories: The Importance of Women's Narratives of Resistance’. Violence Against Women 16 (2010): 1162–1172; and Phyllis Scott Carlin & Linda M. Park-Fuller, ‘Disaster Narrative Emergent/cies: Performing Loss, Identity and Resistance’, Text and Performance Quarterly 32 (2012): 20–37. 8 Robert P. Abelson, ‘Attitude Extremity’, in Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, ed. Richard E. Petty & Jon A. Krosnick, (Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995), 25–41; Richard E. Petty & Jon A. Krosnick, Attitude
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__________________________________________________________________ Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, (Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995); Sonya Dal Cin, Mark P. Zanna & Geoffrey T. Fong, ‘Narrative Persuasion and Overcoming Resistance’, in Resistance and Persuasion, ed. Eric S. Knowles & Jay A. Linn, (Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2004), 175–191. 9 For a further discussion on the rise and impact of a political purist Islam in Malaysia, see William R. Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 1980); Zainah Anwar, Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah among the Students, (Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Pelanduk Publications, 1987); Judith A. Nagata, The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots, (Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 1984); Osman Bakar, ‘Islam and Political Legitimacy in Malaysia’, in Islam and Political Legitimacy, ed. Shahram Akbarzadeh & Abdullah Saeed, (New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003), 127–149; Joseph Chinyong Liow ‘Political Islam in Malaysia: Legitimacy, Hegemony and Resistance’, in Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, ed. Anthony Reid & Michael Gilsenan, (Hoboken: Routledge, 2007), 167–187; Riaz Hassan, Inside Muslim Minds, (Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 2008). 10 Paul Thagard, ‘Testimony, Credibility and Explanatory Coherence’. Erkenntnis 63 (2005), 295. 11 Ibid., 308. 12 Michael Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling, 19–21. 13 Schaffer & Smith, Human Rights and Narrated Lives, 27. 14 Thomas Flynn, Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), ‘Preface’. 15 Ever since Azwan Ismail’s video was uploaded online, Seksualiti Merdeka’s activities were subjected to closer monitoring by the Islamic religious authorities and members of pro-Islamists groups. Information on its activites and updates on the current discriminatory trends against the sexual minority in Malaysia can be found at its website, www.seksualitimerdeka.org. 16 Appendix 1 provides a listing of these threats which were expressed in both the Malay language and in English. 17 Zainol Abideen, ‘Azwan Ismail, Budaya 'Gay' dan Seksualiti Merdeka. JAKIM dan Kerajaan BN buta ke?’ 20 December, 2010. Viewed 4 April, 2011. . 18 See Appendix 2 for the video transcript in both the Malay language and for the English translation. For a further discussion on ‘no self-proclaimed gays in Muslim countries’, see Kecia Ali ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell: Same-sex intimacy in Muslim
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__________________________________________________________________ thought’, in Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Quran Hadith, by Kecia Ali, (Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2006), 75–96. 19 Amir Muhammad, ‘Who is Azwan Ismail and why are some people saying terrible things about him?’ 20 December 2010. Viewed 5 April 2011. . 20 Azwan Ismail, ‘Statement by Azwan Ismail on how his life has been affected because of the threats of violence and murder’. Appendix 2, letter of complaint to The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), 6 April 2011. 21 Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. 22 Azwan Ismail, interviewed by author, 19 October 2012. 23 While existentialists are not in complete agreement with each other on ‘being’ and ‘to be’, what is commonly described is the struggle of the individual in seeking balance in the ‘how to live’. The emphasis is on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘what’. 24 Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling, 50. 25 Ibid. 26 Jackson, The Politics of Storytelling, 13 & 23 27 See the work of Gerhard Hoffstaedter, Modern Muslim Identities: Negotiating Religion and Ethnicity in Malaysia, (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2011). 28 For a more detailed reading of the phenomena of a purist Islam, see Riaz Hassan, Inside Muslim Minds. On Malaysia’s Malay Islam, see the work of Gerhard Hoffstaedter & La Trobe University, ‘Muslim Malay Identity Formation and Its Articulation in Peninsular Malaysia: An Ethnographic Study in Identity Politics’, Theses, School of Social Sciences, 2008. 29 Theo Van Leeuwen, ‘What is Authenticity?’ Discourse Studies 3 (2001), 392 & 395. 30 Van Leeuwen, ‘What is Authenticity?’, 393 & 396. 31 Norshahril Saat, ‘Islamising Malayness: Ulama Discourse and Authority in Contemporary Malaysia’, Contemporary Islam 6 (2012): 135-153. 32 For more information on the global ‘It Gets Better’ Project, see . 33 Lauren Berlant, The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture, (Durham: Duke UP, 2008). 34 Anna Poletti, ‘Coaxing an Intimate Public: Life Narrative in Digital Storytelling’, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 25 (2011): 73– 83. 35 Anna Poletti, ‘Intimate Economies: PostSecret and the Affect of Confession’. Biography 34 (2011): 25–36. 36 See . 37 Anna Poletti, ‘Intimate Economies’, 31.
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Bibliography Abelson, Robert P. ‘Attitude Extremity’. In Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, edited by Richard E. Petty & Jon A. Krosnick, 25–41. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995. Abideen, Zainol. ‘Azwan Ismail, Budaya 'Gay' dan Seksualiti Merdeka. JAKIM dan Kerajaan BN buta ke?’ 20 December, 2010. Viewed 4 April, 2011. . Ali, Kecia. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell: Same-sex intimacy in Muslim thought’. In Sexual ethics and Islam: Feminist reflections on Quran hadith, by Kecia Ali, 75–96. Oxford, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2006. Viewed 2 November, 2012. . Anwar, Zainah. Islamic Revivalism in Malaysia: Dakwah among the Students. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Pelanduk Publications, 1987. Bakar, Osman. ‘Islam and Political Legitimacy in Malaysia’. In Islam and Political Legitimacy, edited by Shahram Akbarzadeh & Abdullah Saeed, 127–149. New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003. Berlant, Lauren. The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Sentimentality in American Culture. Durham: Duke UP, 2008.
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Braithwaite, John. ‘Narrative and Compulsory Compassion’. Law & Social Inquiry 31 (2006): 425–446. Carlin, Phyllis Scott & Park-Fuller, Linda M. ‘Disaster Narrative Emergent/cies: Performing Loss, Identity and Resistance’. Text and Performance Quarterly 32 (2012): 20–37. Cermele, Jill. 2010. ‘Telling Our Stories: The Importance of Women's Narratives of Resistance’. Violence Against Women 16 (2010): 1162–1172.
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__________________________________________________________________ Dal Cin, Sonya, Zanna, Mark P., & Fong, Geoffrey T. ‘Narrative Persuasion and Overcoming Resistance’. In Resistance and Persuasion, edited by Eric S. Knowles & Jay A. Linn, 175–191. Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2004. The Express Tribune Pakistan. ‘Pakistan opposes UN discussion on violence against LGBT’, The Express Tribune, 6 March 2012. Viewed 7 March, 2012. . Flynn, Thomas. Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, UK, 2006. Viewed 29 May 2013. . Hassan, Riaz. Inside Muslim Minds. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 2008. Hoffstaedter, Gerhard & La Trobe University. ‘Muslim Malay Identity Formation and Its Articulation in Peninsular Malaysia: An Ethnographic Study in Identity Politics’. Theses. School of Social Sciences, 2008. Hoffstaedter, Gerhard. Modern Muslim Identities: Negotiating Religion and Ethnicity in Malaysia. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2011. Humphreys, M. & Brown, A.D. ‘Narratives of Organizational Identity and Identification: A Case Study of Hegemony and Resistance’. Organization Studies 23 (2002): 421–447. Ismail, Azwan. ‘Statement by Azwan Ismail on how his life has been affected because of the threats of violence and murder’. Appendix 2, letter of complaint to The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), 6 April 2011. Jackson, Michael. The Politics of Storytelling: Violence, Transgression, and Intersubjectivity. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2002. Linn, Ruth. 2002. ‘Mature Unwed Mothers: Narratives of Moral Resistance’. Reference and Research Book News 17 (2002): n/a-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199660766?accountid=13380
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Liow, Joseph Chinyong. ‘Political Islam in Malaysia: Legitimacy, Hegemony and Resistance’. In Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, edited by Anthony Reid & Michael Gilsenan, 167–187. Hoboken: Routledge, 2007. Muhammad, Amir. ‘Who is Azwan Ismail and why are some people saying terrible things about him?’ 20 December 2010. Viewed 5 April 2011. Nagata, Judith A. The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 1984. Packwood, Alan Nicholas. ‘Narratives of Identity and Resistance: Gay and Bisexual Men Living with HIV and AIDS’. Carleton University (Canada), 1993. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 135 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304042205?accountid=13380 Pang, Khee Teik. ‘Islamic Extremists Issue Death Threats for Giving Hope’. Appendix 1, letter of complaint to The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), 6 April 2011. Petty, Richard E., & Krosnick, Jon A. Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995. Poletti, Anna. ‘Coaxing an Intimate Public: Life Narrative in Digital Storytelling’. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 25 (2011): 73–83. Poletti, Anna. ‘Intimate Economies: PostSecret and the Affect of Confession’. Biography 34 (2011): 25–36. Roff, William R. The Origins of Malay Nationalism. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 1980. Saat, Norshahril. ‘Islamising Malayness: Ulama Discourse and Authority in Contemporary Malaysia’. Contemporary Islam 6 (2012): 135-153. Schaffer, Kay & Smith, Sidonie. Human Rights and Narrated Lives: The Ethics of Recognition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
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__________________________________________________________________ Springate, Elisabeth. ‘Networks of Resistance: Digital Media, Storytelling, and Acts of Resistance to Sexual Assault’. York University (Canada), 2005. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 110 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/305390044?accountid=13380 Srivastava, Sarita & Francis, Margot. ‘The Problem of “Authentic Experience”: Storytelling in Anti-Racist and Anti-Homophobic Education’. Critical Sociology 32 (2006): 275–307. Thagard, Paul. ‘Testimony, Credibility and Explanatory Coherence’. Erkenntnis 63 (2005): 295–316. doi:10.1007/s10670-005-4004-2. Van Leeuwen, Theo. ‘What is Authenticity?’ Discourse Studies 3 (2001): 392– 397. doi:10.1177/1461445601003004003. Watson, Denise Begnaud. ‘Casting on the Waters: Women's Narratives of Identity, Empowerment, and Resistance to Patriarchy’. Texas A&M University, 2001. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304767965?accountid=13380. Wilson, Michael D. ‘Writing Home: Indigenous Narratives of Resistance’. Reference and Research Book News, 23 (2008): n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199630196?accountid=13380 Young, Iris Marion. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Zingaro, Linde. Speaking Out: Storytelling for Social Change. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press Inc., 2009. Angela M. Kuga Thas is currently pursuing her Doctor of Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. A Malaysian and a feminist human rights activist, her main interest is in utility-oriented research that can contribute to advancing the human rights of vulnerable and minority communities, as well as the rights of women in general.
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Appendix 1 Death Threats on Seksualiti Merdeka’s blog ape lagi tunggu.. org mcm ni dihalalkan untuk dibunuh... by Anonymous, 12 / 17 / 10 Death Threats on the comments of the Youtube video • aku rasa kerajaan malaysia perlu membenteras gay lahanat ni dari ters membiak... dia orang dh mula berani tunjuk muka... kalu boleh lak sanakan undang2 islam agar wabak ini dapat di kekang.... jika hukuman islam rejam.... laksana kan saja... Pending approval Approve abgsyah2001 1 day ago • muka mcm babi. ptt rejam la mamat ni. aku tahu aku ni bukan la iman yg tebal sgt tp xde la smpai tahap nak GAY bro. nabi xngaku umat wei... bgus la korang (gay) ikut telunjuk yahudi tu lagunabad 3 days ago • @creditbrunch respect kepala kote ko,ko agama ape weyh ? ko nak kitorang respect ko ? langkah mayat aku dulu la weyh,pecah kepala aku bace comment2 org.argh ! tnggu la imam mahdi turun nanti,org2 cam ko larh yg kitorang akan rejam nanti.Time tuh Islam akan glory balik dan org2 cam ko rasa lah api neraka tu nanti. thetearjerker19 4 days ago • @d4darlene ade gak org rasa yang ape yang mamat ni buat tak salah,nak pertahankan dia ? isk isk isk,pastu salahkan org lain plak? bagus,ramai2kan lah org cam ko,lagi cepat kiamat dtg lagi bagus,buat aku sakit hati jer,elak satu hari aku tak tahan pastu rejam jer org2 cam ko ngan dia nie.tengah tahan je skang nie.fuh.sabar2. thetearjerker19 4 days ago • @Viofixemo Aku rejam sampai mati je. Kasparovmaster 4 days ago
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__________________________________________________________________ • orang macam ni sewajibnya direjam sampai mati.inilah kategori makhluk laknatullah.kenapalah hukum hudud tak dilaksanakn di malaysia? bencana semakin banyak,tapi mereka tak sedar2.nak tunggu bumi ni hancur barulah nak sedar & ingat Allah. syidfrds88 4 days ago • si murtad lagi, siap hina agama org plak. mmg ptt si murtad dihukum bunuh dlm Islam. Pending approval Approve whateverandeverandev 6 hours ago • Rasulullah SAW bersabda, “Barangsiapa yang kalian dapati melakukan perbuatan kaum Luth, maka bunuhlah kedua pelakunya” [HR Termizi, Abu Daud, Ibnu Majah, dan Ahmad] Pending approval Approve ivanchikatillo 15 hours ago • @stevaq hahaha . cool . kami nampak kebodohan anda stevaq . wahai kawan2 tak perlu laa nak bertikam lidah dgn stevaq ni , dia hina macam mana pun dia orang kafir , dia ni penakut sebenarnye , menyalak2 macam anjing dalam ni . ape yg kite tahu gay muslim ni darah dia halal untuk dibunuh sekian . intolerant tak intolerant , kalau dia dalam agama islam .. kasi tembak je . • @addict77 the most effective deterrent is fear. iron claws are more effective than velvet glove. dah dia membangkitkan sensitiviti melayu muslim. kalo jumpe kat mana2, kalo tak kena sembelih, mmg silap la. dapat attack kat sini pun jadik lah. ape langkah2 yg perlu diambil kalau saudara islam nak murtad? kalau tak insaf, bunuh, kan? bleedificationism 3 days ago Rasulullah s.a.w bersabda yang bermaksud: “Sesiapa yang kamu didapati melakukan liwat seperti yang dilakukan oleh kaum Lut maka hendaklah kamu bunuh yang melakukan liwat dan yang dikenakan liwat ke atasnya.” onlinebazaardotmy 4 days ago •
Allah SWT berfirman:
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__________________________________________________________________ Artinya: Mengapa kamu mendatangi jenis lelaki di antara manusia, Dan kamu tinggalkan isteri-isteri yang dijadikan oleh Tuhanmu untukmu, bahkan kamu adalah orang-orang yang melampaui batas” (QS. As-Syu’ra : 165-166) Bahkan Homoseksual jauh lebih menjijikkan dan hina daripada perzinahan. Sebagaimana sabda Rasulullah SAW : ﻭوﺩد ﻭوﺍاﻝلﺕتﺭرﻡمﺫذﻱي)ﺃأﻕقﺕتﻝلﻭوﺍا ﺍاﻝلﻑفﺍاﻉعﻝل ﻭوﺍاﻝلﻡمﻑفﻉعﻭوﻝل ﺏبﻩه (ﺡحﺩدﻱيﺙث ﺹصﺡحﻱيﺡح ﺃأﺥخﺭرﺝجﻩه ﺃأﺏبﻭو ﺩدﺍا Artinya: Bunuhlah fa’il dan maf’ulnya (kedua-duanya) (HR. Abu Daud dan Tirmidzi) izuddin51 4 days ago • i can understand if it come to animals..but as a human being (islam) tis guy is the stupidius person..kalau jumpa anjing/babi better bunuh dia dr bunuh binatang2 tu...buduh sebuduh buduh nya!!!! hshamsul1 4 days ago • Rasulullah Saw. bersabda, "Barangsiapa yang kalian dapati melakukan perbuatan kaum Luth, maka bunuhlah kedua pelakunya” [HR Tirmidzi, Abu Daud, Ibnu Majah, dan Ahmad] mrspingupenyu 5 days ago • xxxxing gay!!!!! kill u in hell!!!! Pending approval Approve PfU9368 1 day ago • FUKING GAY FUK U U SHOULD KILL URSELF FUK U GAY FAKE N GAY!!! Pending approval Approve Zran85 2 days ago • @sassyhot88 meh, cant do something for him now, if i ruled over him i would order to kill him. ragenFOX 5 days ago • @yusridude yeah i also wan kill you,it`s not illegali thing right? GOGO Human Right......what a dumb.if we all support human right,we can`t feel peace in our daily live Pending approval Approve amirrzl96 2 days ago
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• what a dork...u such an asshole u know..what so good with ur disgusting confession huh? go kill ur self larrr faggot!!!!!!! eidiel1101 4 days ago • "We also sent Lut : He said to his people : "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." [Qur'an 7:80-81] "When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shakes." [hadith] "Kill the one that is doing it and also kill the one that it is being done to." (in reference to the active and passive partners in gay sexual intercourse) drsaifulazam 4 days ago • @cQ0l3Dx yeah we shouldnt curse at him. we should kill him instead. i second this guy's comment :) radioactive1 6 days ago • @stevaq hahaha . see much to shown on stupidity , really care about sensitivity about humanity , but really don't get on sense of culture and religious itself , talking like a child .. if he legal on gay in islam , so we should legal murder in islam . thanks . have fun . ;) harryzut 3 days ago • gi mati arr kau.......stakat nk jadi gay......kalu ko dtng kuantan siap ko aku kejekan sampai mati shinchanrempit 4 days ago • ALL GAY MUST DIE!!! Pending approval Approve Skull7727 1 day ago Source: Pang, K.T. ‘Islamic Extremists Issue Death Threats for Giving Hope’. Appendix 1, letter of complaint to The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM), 6 April 2011.
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Appendix 2 Transcript of Azwan Ismail’s video message, ‘Saya gay, saya okay’ (I am gay, I am ok) Malay version Azwan Ismail Engineer, poet, writer Editor – Orang Macam Kita Sasterawan negara, Shahnon Ahmad, ada menulis di dalam salah satu daripada novelnya lebih kurang begini, “kenali diri, kenali segala”. Ia seolah-olah memberitahu kita jika kita mengenali diri kita, mengenali tubuh kita, mengenali perasaan kita, mengenali pemikiran kita, kitalah yang berhak memberitahu kepada orang lain siapa yang kita ingin menjadi dan bukannya mereka. Saya Azwan Ismail. Umur saya 32 tahun. Saya telah mengambil masa yang agak lama untuk mengenali diri saya, untuk meyakini diri saya bahawa saya seorang gay, dan apabilanya saya berani mengatakan bahawa saya seorang gay kepada orang lain, setelah 30 tahun itu, saya telah menjadi seorang yang kuat dan yakin dengan apa yang bakal saya lalui pada masa depan. Memang tidak dinafikan agak sukar untuk menjadi seorang gay di Malaysia, terutamanya, jika kita seorang Melayu kerana faktor agama dan budaya banyak mencorakkan kehidupan kita dan memberitahu kita apa yang kita boleh jadi dan apa yang kita tidak boleh jadi. Tetapi kita kena ingat bahawa apa yang diberitahu oleh orang lain, apa yang diberitahu oleh guruguru kita, ustaz kita, kawan-kawan kita, kebanyakannya adalah dari pandangan seorang heteroseksual. Mereka tidak merasai dan tidak memahami menjadi seorang yang gay. Kita lebih mengetahui diri kita, dan kita perlu mengambil masa dan terus mencuba untuk memberitahu orang-orang sebegitu. Saya yakin keadaan akan menjadi lebih baik. Kita cuma perlu mencari sumber-sumber kekuatan di sekeliling kita kerana terdapat mereka yang dapat membantu kita, dan akhirnya dapat memberikan keyakinan kepada kita untuk menempuhi hari-hari yang akan datang, sebagai seorang gay yang lebih tabah. Saya harap anda akhirnya akan dapat menemui sumber kekuatan itu dan memegang kepadanya, dan akhirnya yakin untuk memberitahu kepada orang lain, “Saya gay, saya ok”. *****
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__________________________________________________________________ English version Azwan Ismail Engineer, poet, writer Editor – Orang Macam Kita Shahnon Ahmad, a national laureate, wrote in one of his novels something like this, "know yourself, know all". It seems to tell us if we know ourselves, know our bodies, recognize our feelings, know our thoughts, we wield the right to tell people who we want to be and not them. I am Azwan Ismail. I am 32 years of age. I have taken some time to get to know myself, to believe in myself as someone gay, and when I became brave enough to say that I am a gay man to others, after 30 years, I became strong and confident with what the future may hold for me. No doubt it is quite difficult to be gay in Malaysia, especially, if as Malays, because many religious and cultural factors shape our lives and tell us what we can be and what we cannot be. But we must remember that what others tell us, what our teachers tell us, our religious teacher, our friends, many of them have perspectives of a heterosexual. They do not feel nor understand what it is like to be gay. We are more aware of ourselves, and we need to take the time and keep trying to tell people our perspectives. I'm sure things will get better. We just need to find sources of strength around us because there are people who can help us, and eventually be able to give us the confidence to face the days to come, to be more courageous as a gay man. I hope you will eventually be able to find a source of strength and hold onto it, and finally be confident to tell other people, "I am gay, I am ok".