MALAYSIA will not recognise same-sex marriage, Dr Mahathir Mohamad reiterated in his Cambridge Union talk yesterday.

Defending the traditional marriage institution, the prime minister described same-sex marriage as a “regressive way of thinking”.

There is no such thing as “absolute right” allowing people to do anything and everything they want, he said.

“I don’t understand gay marriage… Marriage is about producing children. Do you get children in a gay marriage? What do they do? They adopt children and things like that.

“Today, the institution of marriage is almost discarded. No marriage, no family… what are we going to be?

“To us, this is a regressive way of thinking. Simply because you think people are free to do what they like… a man marrying a man, a woman marrying a woman… that’s okay as it is their right, but rights have got limits. There is no such thing as absolute right to do everything.”

Dr Mahathir has consistently rejected same-sex marriage and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture, saying Malaysia does not subscribe to such Western values.

He has said the country will not accept certain practices even though they are deemed by the West to fall under human rights.

In Malaysia, the concept of marriage involves only the union between a man and a woman, he told the crowd yesterday. – June 17, 2019.