ET 23: PARIS BURNING IN MALAYSIA

Dear Film Censorship Board of Malaysia,

   As you and I know, Paris is Burning has been banned in Malaysia. This letter's intentions are mainly to appeal for the removal of the ban that has been applied on Paris is Burning.

Paris is Burning has been removed based on the sexuality of the movie and how it would affect the society of our country. As much as the board is concerned about whether or not people will look into becoming transsexuals themselves, the board should know that a person's sexuality is not based on "trend" or media. It is solely given to them when they are born.

With the introduction of 1 Malaysia, why is not possible for the government to unite all diversities of people including those of different sexuality, instead of trying to just unite those of different races. The 1 Malaysia goal can be more easily accomplished if unity of all sexuality in our country is made. This is mainly because there are transsexuals within all ethnics in Malaysia. According to researches made by Lynn Conway¹, in 2000, surveys show that there are approximately 50000 Malaysians who are transsexuals. This is a significant number which is constantly growing with respect to our total population and cannot be avoided. What will our government do with this large number of people, are they going to send every single one of them for rehabilitation or deportation? I don't think so.

According to the Syariah court, being a transsexual is a sin for the Islamic religion. But, this should not affect the general law. Just because a few religions disapproves on this activity, this should not affect those who do not follow those specific religions. Where as in countries like America and Thailand, transsexuals are recognize as the third gender. The transsexuals in America and Thailand also receive equal rights than any other citizen. If their government can allow such a thing. Why is our country's law based highly on the Islamic laws?

In recent news, if a person is diagnosed as mentally unstable, he or she can be excused for murder. If we can allow criminals with mental dysfunction to live after committing  homicide, how is it that we cannot allow transsexuals to just be themselves and cause no harm to others ?

I hope, with my points, the board will have a better understanding of why transsexuals are how they are, and  accept their community as any other community in our country. I sincerely hope you will reconsider the ban that has been placed on the film Burning in Paris.

Nigel Tan
Film Student of ADP



Work Cited.
¹ - Conway Lynn (http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/MalaysianTS.html)