KUALA LUMPUR — Five of the six books recently banned by the Home Ministry for allegedly causing “moral decline” are young adult fiction, with three of them on gay romances.
The five books, which carry the “young adult” category tag on Goodreads, are written and published in the United States or Canada.
The only Malaysian-authored book is Punai by Asyraf Bakti, published by Buku Fixi in 2022.
“Punai” is slang for penis, and Buku Fixi, which describes the book as comedy, told Malaysiakini that government censors are unable to have a sense of humour.
The publisher said the book examines the extent to which art should be controlled or left to readers’ interpretation.
A search on Buku Fixi’s website for the title yielded no results for the book.
However, as of press time, Punai is listed for sale on Shopee and Lazada for RM24.90, and as an e-book on Google Play.
The five other books banned by the Home Ministry, as announced in its press statement on Tuesday, are A Million Kisses In Your Lifetime by Monica Murphy, Lose You To Find Me by Erik J. Brown, Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell, When Everything Feels Like The Movies by Raziel Reid, and What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silverra.
The bans, enforced through a government gazette under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (Act 301), are a preventative action “before the harm is inflicted” from content deemed unsuitable for public consumption, the ministry added.
The three books categorised on Goodreads as LGBT romance or queer fiction are Lose You To Find Me, When Everything Feels Like The Movies and What If It’s Us.
According to Goodreads, Lose You To Find Me, published in 2023, is a “romantic, heartfelt, and hilarious queer coming-of-age story” about a restaurant employee who falls in love with a new worker, who turns out to be his childhood crush.
When Everything Feels Like The Movies, a Canadian publication released in 2014, explores the experiences of a gay teenager in school.
The protagonist is Jude, who can’t fit in with his schoolmates but tries to win the heart of another boy named Luke.
A review in the UK paper The Guardian, however, hailed the book for its exploration of the suffering and tragic circumstances surrounding cross-dressing individuals, noting that the story draws on the life and 2008 murder of Larry Fobes King, an American 15-year-old who was shot and killed by a schoolmate for displaying effeminate tendencies.
In What If It’s Us, a sex scene between two male lovebirds is included in the young adult novel on the main characters, Arthur and Ben, who have a summer romance in New York.
They meet by chance at a post office and go their separate ways, but are unable to forget each other. The rest of the book details how they strive to find one another.
The plot as outlined in an online review states that Arthur and Ben have sex for the first time after attending a birthday party.
The two other young adult romance titles in the Home Ministry’s banned list are A Million Kisses In Your Lifetime and Scattered Showers, both published in 2022.
According to Goodreads, A Million Kisses In Your Lifetime is also classified as “high school” and is the second book in Lancaster Prep Series of five books about the life and loves of high school students at the fictitious institution.
A teaser on the author Monica Murphy’s website says the book is about “a repressed little virgin who keeps her feelings locked up so tight she’s probably close to bursting” who draws the attention of a boy who “will do anything for this girl to make her fall in love with me”.
Scattered Showers, meanwhile, is a collection of short love stories about different youths in unique romance situations.
“Girl meets boy camping outside a movie theatre. Best friends debate the merits of high school dances. A prince romances a troll. A girl romances an imaginary boy,” says a description of the book on Goodreads.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry regularly reviews and gazettes bans on books, usually on content that the ministry deems will promote communist teachings, insulting to Islam, or containing obscenities and promiscuous sex.
On social media, some netizens have slammed the ministry’s ban on the latest six books, with one questioning the decision, given that Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf is still sold.
Social media users have also suggested that the publishers challenge the government in court, while others point out that the bans will create a “Streisand Effect” which is the unintended consequence of promoting something that is hidden or outlawed. – January 9, 2025
