“CRIME and death increased dramatically” – was that a newspaper headline? It indeed was one on January 1, when Malaysians came together to celebrate the start of a new calendar year full of anticipation of what 2019 might bring.

But the newspaper headlines do not speak the truth. The newspapers and official statements on illegal money lenders, loan sharks, theft, and robbery state the obvious and are bad-mouthing. Why? On January 1, the murder victim was a transgender woman.

This is not an individual case and we are tired of being told differently. These reports and statements misrepresent the fact that these have caused the deaths and murder of transgenders in our country. Too often have officials given their statements to the press without intense investigations shortly after the crime.

How do headlines and news content cause death?

It is fact that the tone and voice of journalists, official bodies, politicians, and institutions form and influence society. Speaking about transgender women in public also increases noise from non-expert opinion leaders that want to voice their disapproval and stigmatise the community further by stating transgenderism is socio-economic, though it is health related as the World Health Organisation defines it.

On January 1, a transgender was murdered and the headline of the Star Online was “Transgender dies after phone row”. It was stated that the motive of murder was an argument over a stolen handphone. Really?

Society associates certain stigma with transgenders. Transgenders are believed to consume drugs, even though it is a national issue: from 2010 to 2016, 131,841 drug addicts were registered in Malaysia and over 95% of drug addicts were reported to be male.

Shoplifting and theft are assumed to be done by transgenders. The transgender community is believed to be around 24,000 as of 2014 according to the Health Ministry. Compare this group with a society 31.62 million large and the fact that the number of such robberies in the country are minor. The fact is that theft and robbery are increasing by over 50% in Kuala Lumpur alone, while the crime rate is generally decreasing. This clearly shows that it is a national issue and not solely a socio-economic circumstance of a minority group.

Transgenders women are believed to be solely sex workers with sexual transmission diseases. From the Health Ministry’s data, it is clear however that HIV is most often transmitted through sexual contact among bisexuals (50.3%) as of 2014. The same data proves that sex workers only account for approximately 0.6% of total reported HIV cases.

One of the prevailing stigmas currently omnipresent after the murder on January 1 concerns theft. Malaysian officials and authorities blame deaths on robbery. Society has decided to execute self-justice on transgender women, because Malaysia fears the unknown, judges differences, and does not perceive transgender women as part of Malaysian society.  

Let’s face reality: it was and has always been a crime of hatred.

We demand the police to protect Malaysians despite their gender, religion, or sexual orientation. Civil society groups have already taken the first step to provide shelter and facility services to 10 to 12 individuals. Government institutions should follow this example and support the transgender women community through services that protect transgender women from self-justice practicing citizens, violence, and discrimination. This should only be a start – there are other areas in which the community should be supported: employment market, educational system, and health.

As a very first step, we demand to hold authorities accountable for their reporting while and after a crime relating to the transgender women community and to keep the quality of investigation at a standard of excellence.

* Elisha Kor Krishnan is the founder of Pertubuhan Kesihatan dan Kebajikan Umum Malaysia and reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.