I refer to the Malaysiakini report M'sian transsexual fighting deportation in UK to be punished .

I suggest that Immigration Department Director-General Abdul Rahman Othman join a primary school English class to learn the meaning of the word ‘shame’.

If that sounds too much for him to stomach, then may I use the word ‘malu’ which is Bahasa Malaysia for ‘shame’. With this, I hope he now understands what ‘shame’ means so that he may understand the following points.

What has Fatine committed that has caused ‘great shame’ to Malaysia? Is the DG trying to say that surgical transformation by a transsexual to either male or female a ‘shameful’ thing? Or is the DG trying to tell the world - especially the transsexual community - that being transsexual is a ‘great shame’?

DG, please use your brain to think - being born a transsexual is already a sad, unfortunate thing but most importantly it is not Fatine's choice in wanting to be a transsexual in the first place.

Fatine is now in Britain, several thousand miles from her home country Malaysia. She has chosen to become female and marry a British man, settle down there and start a new life.

It is almost impossible for her to do the same thing in Malaysia because of our society’s conservative thinking.

It is also not easy for most ordinary people to settle down in foreign land (unless you are super rich) as you are actually uprooting yourself and your family from the comfort of ‘home sweet home’.

Not to mention you are also losing friends and relatives. All Fatine wants is to Start a new life but now she is facing the deportation on technical grounds, not criminal grounds.

DG, you, instead of having pity on her and extending a helping hand to our fellow Malaysian citizen (who has committed no crime), have instead chosen to take legal action against her.

It is akin to an old Chinese proverb – someone is drowning in a well but instead of helping the drowning man, a passer-by throws a boulder into the well. Now whose act is considered ‘great shame’- the drowning man’s or the passer-by’s?

When I told the story to a group of young children, all of them spontaneously said the passer-by was a ‘great shame’. DG, you are just like that passer-by – a ‘great shame’ to Malaysia. These young children know the meaning of the word ‘shame’ better than you.