“It’s all of them against me, alone, and since it’s a democracy, I have to withdraw my motion,” Teh said in a telephone interview with The Malay Mail Online after a debate with DAP state assemblymen and MPs this afternoon.
Teh said the debate clearly showed that political leaders in Malaysia are still “closed-minded”.
“They can keep saying they fight for human rights but their objection to my motion shows that they are not really all for human rights and that they are still closed-minded,” he said.
Two days ago, Teh told a press conference that he had submitted the motion to set up the committee in the hope that the backbenchers will support his motion.
He was also seeking funding of RM200,000 a year to set up an institute to organise various awareness and educational programmes.
“I will not give up on this. I will try again in the next sitting in November,” he said.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng issued a statement today stating that Teh had withdrawn his personal motion to set up the transgender rights committee.
“This motion is Teh’s personal motion, it is not DAP’s stand nor was it the Penang PR state government’s motion as he had done it without the state’s consent,” Lim said.
Lim said he considered the issue as “resolved” since Teh had already withdrawn the motion.