Tanjung Bungah assemblyperson Teh Yee Cheu has submitted a motion for the Penang legislative assembly to debate the setting up of a Transgender committee and an institute.

The state assembly, which will open on May 19, has yet to respond to Teh’s proposal.

He had actually planned to proposed a Private Member’s Bill on the matter but was advised by state legislative assembly speaker Law Choo Kiang to propose a motion instead.

Teh said he is lobbying for the committee to be set up by the state government to get support and financial backing of at least RM200,000 a year so that eventually, a Transgender Institute can be established.

Teh said the Institute is relevant as there are about 20,000 members of the community, according to a study done by Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2002.

“The institute can specifically study the problems faced by the local transgender community, to assist in the drafting of state laws,” he said at his service centre in Lembah Permai.

“The institute will be responsible for for public education so that there will be no more prejudice towards the transgender community,” Teh added.

“This institute can also act as a service centre and a channel for the transgender community should they need some help,” he stressed.

Last year, Teh had raised the issue of discrimination against the transgender community in Penang, and his arguments were backed by both BN and Pakatan Rakyat assemblypersons.

However, the state government was not very keen on setting up a committee to look into the matter as the issue is “politically sensitive”, Teh said.

“Both sides of the divide - BN and Pakatan - sees this as a political issue that can be politicised. If they want to play politics, they should play with other issues. To me this is a human rights issue,” he added.

Teh, popularly known as the ‘Green YB’, is in the forefront of the fight to defend transgender rights when he appointed Hazreen Shaik Daud, 24 ( left in photo ) as his political secretary in July last year.

At around the same time, Teh was also disappointed that the state government decided to form a bipartisan caucus instead of a full-fledged committee on the issue.

He said “conservative-minded” people within the state government had prevented the setting up of the committee, which would have more power to deal with transgender issues.

‘Not many coming forward to register as voters’

Meanwhile, Teh said not many members of the transgender community were coming forward to register as voters, although a DAP branch has been opened under his constituency for the purpose.

Teh said the Taman Bunga branch, which currently has registered 50 members, has yet to have a member from the community although it has been set up about a year ago.

“We have openly invited the community to join the branch but we realise that they are afraid that doing so would expose their identity,” Teh said.

“We set up such a branch so that the community can have a stronger political voice, especially when it comes to defending their rights and lobby for law to protect them,” he added.