The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them - that is the essence of humanity - George Bernard Shaw.

There certainly is no sin greater than that of passing moral judgement on a fellow human being. Yet, we who pride ourselves as 'caring' Malaysians, do it mercilessly over and above.

The above quote from George Bernard Shaw has yet to hold water with many of us, who not just act indifferent but also display abhorrence in situations which sincerely require our empathy and understanding.

One such example where Malaysians have shown a great deal of ignorance concerns the transsexuals and the homosexuals.

To make matters worse, recently, a local television station joined in the pool of uninformed minds when it with much 'bravado' presented the scenario of transsexuals and homosexuals in the country.

The supposedly 'concerned' TV station blared that it is not only rapists that Malaysia must weed out but also the transsexuals, gays and lesbians.

However, in its misplaced enthusiasm to provide 'hot' information to the public, ntv7 , through its Edisi Siasat episode aired on July 19 only reflected the shallowness of the people involved in putting together this particular segment.

Manipulated information

The station had a few weeks earlier aired a similar episode on gays but in Mandarin and it came out as less-hostile compared to the Malay version in which the transsexuals and gays interviewed were Malay Muslims.

While the intention of informing was its motive, the station, however got carried away and what hurt was the manner in which the information was manipulated, which was no less an insult to the informed viewer.

That particular episode was supposedly focussed on gays and transsexuals or mak nyahs with a passing mention of lesbians. Instead of trying to educate its viewers on the issue of homosexuality, ntv7 took it upon itself to censure those in the same-sex relationship and also the mak nyahs.

Words like ' dosa ' or sin were spewed by the host to describe homosexuality. No where throughout the programme did the station present an impartial view of this issue. A few transsexuals were interviewed and some experts (who spoke immaturely about homosexuality) were presented to the viewers.

Transsexuals and gays were made out to be people with some form of mental disorder by virtue of their sexual inclination or preference - but nothing can be further from the truth and which is that in 1973, a research convinced the American Psychiatric Association fully to remove the word 'homosexuality' from the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorder - the very handbook that psychiatrists and other mental health professionals use to diagnose patients!

Homosexual-bashing

So, what prompted this TV station to go to town with a quarter-baked report on gays and mak nyahs can be anyone's guess - that too in a programme like Edisi Siasat .

While it was an out and out homosexual-bashing programme, it certainly made one matter clear -that the Malaysian mainstream media doe not have the courage of objective accountability on the subject matter to undertake a commitment to fair and objective reporting.

Let's face it, with honesty - Malaysia is just as much home to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and transsexuals just like it is home to corrupt politicians and honest wage-earners.

While politicians are sly enough to hide behind the cloak of politics, homosexuals and mak nyahs end up being condemned, paradoxically because of their honesty in taking a stand - with regards to their private life.

In retrospect, ntv7 's July 19 Edisi Siasat episode reminded me once again how truth is so often conveniently manipulated to serve the fabricated needs of some.

Had the station presented a fair and unbiased reporting, it would have reflected the commitment the station boasts of having, that of providing viewers with not just the best in information but also the truth.

Of late, TV stations have been airing programmes concerning homosexuality but then providing viewers with hardly a grain of decent truth.

Merely stating that transsexuals and gays converge in the notorious backlanes of Chow Kit or that they were influenced in their childhood years to become gays or effeminate is not at all helpful - the truth is certainly out there but when the truth also comes with accuracy, responsibility and accountability, which, sadly, a good number of members of the Malaysian media, be it the newspapers or the TV stations, have failed to convey.

Then there was another issue where the award-winning TV show 3R 's much anticipated episode on lesbianism was banned by the Censorship Board, the reason being that it was to 'protect' youngsters from 'becoming' homosexuals!

A shamefully lame excuse but one which the Board got away with. Maybe the Board believes when it comes to issues of sex, the best approach is by making Malaysians closetted or for want of a better expression as " katak di bawah tempurung " (frog under the coconut shell).

Our opinionated Censorship Board forgets that Malaysians are no bunch of fools and have other ways and means of obtaining information. To the Board, a word of caution - 'prevention is better than cure'.

Effeminate males

Yet another example of how shallow the Malaysian mind is was when the National Unity and Social Development Minister Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman said that there were many effeminate male students in universities and that was a worrying matter.

One wonders what was her genuine concern, if there was any - that Malaysia was losing its machoness, that 'real' men were depreciating and that Malaysia would soon become home to 'soft' men?

Perhaps shouldering the 'unity' portfolio forced Siti Zaharah to make yet another absurd statement that the rise in the number of effeminate males in universities was because of the presence of more female students there.

She went on to cite that males students tend to suffer a blow to their confidence when they discover that their female counterparts are much brighter academically.

The reality, if we are brave enough to face, remains that we have the colour black, white and also grey, which incidentally is a tone loved by many.

Life is not all all about being 'straight'. It is also about journeying on a road less travelled. If we take pride in our Malaysian tolerance and love thy neighbour beliefs, then why does it not show when we are dealing with homosexuals, bisexuals and mak nyahs , who also harbour dreams and ambitions?

Maybe because deep down, as Malaysians, we do not practice what we preach.

By the way, of late we are being reminded that peace is in our hands - a paradoxical situation really when we realise our audacity to take something so fundamentally invaluable for granted.

J J RAY started her working career with the mainstream publication. A non-conformist, she realised in the years of her work the barriers that came in her way when she tried, through her writings, to make the world a home for one and all.