TRANSGENDER ISSUES AMONG UiTM SHAH ALAM STUDENTS

By
MOHD EHSAN BIN ZOLKIFLY MOHAMAD ASHRAF BIN HARON ADDY AZIZUL JEFFRY BIN KAILI NORAIN BT ABD MANAF 2021261486 2012818777 2012 2012845816

Introduction
Transgender is a state of one gender identity not matching ones assigned sex as male, female or intersex based on physical genetic gender. May identity as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or asexual. Not uncommonly seek medical services to make their bodies more similar with their gender identities; involvement of mental health professionals is often necessary or desirable in arranging such services. Moreover many transgender and gender variant people experience stigmatization and discrimination as a result of living in a gendered culture into which they often do not easily fit. Transgender rights are largely unrecognized in Malaysia. Though many Malaysians are generally tolerant towards and accepting of transgender individuals, the government retains the colonial era penal code criminalizing it. Social attitudes towards this community are also shaped by Islam, which is the official religion in Malaysia

Problem Statement
Transgender issues among UiTM students Transgender is a new community. A lot of seminar, research done for see the factor that lead to gender variety. Their condition started to turn away from Islam boundaries and limits. The problem started to spreading around IPTAs and were told to the public and society especially local newspaper when the ex Menteri Perpaduan Negara dan Kebajikan Masyarakat, Datuk Paduka Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman mention to the universities authority about the flooded transgender community in universities or college. This condition may be lead to a negative perspective towards the society and scratch the university image. The student goals are supposed to be learning and gaining knowledge until they graduate. Whether we realize it or not, the social problem arises with various act and attitude. Looking at these phenomenon, the researcher were motivated to do research about transgender, the factor and the effects towards shaping of the student attitude and act in IPTAs.

Objectives
Our objective is as follow To determine the factors that lead to transgender issue To find the possible solution for the problem To know the perception of society towards them To study the behavior of transgender students Determine the effects towards UiTM and its students

Scope of Research
In this research, our respondents come from various faculties in UiTM Shah Alam such as Faculty of Applied Science, Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Faculty of Law, Academy of Language Studies, Faculty of Communication and Media Studies, Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Art and Design, Faculty of Architecture Planning and Surveying and also Faculty of Engineering. Focused the research on UiTM students because it seems like the transgender issue is enlarging within our university students.

We have distribute our questionnaire to respondent to find out their knowledge about transgender issues and their awareness to the subject. The questionnaire is equally distributed to male and female students in UiTM Shah Alam.

Methodology
In this research we are using two types of method to find out our objectives, which is through asking questions: survey research and using available data: existing sources. Since there are too many of UiTM student in Shah Alam, we are not able to ask all of the students to react on our research, so we choose randomly 30 respondents from various faculties in this university to answer our questionnaire. Sample here means a part of a population that represents the whole population. Different faculty, gender, and age will represent its own different background. In questionnaire, each respondent are asked to answer five questions regarding the transgender issue. We distribute questionnaire to 30 students that divided equally to male and female student. In a particular question, we used an open-ended format to allow our respondents to respond freely and expressing various shades of opinion. We used this method to let our respondent gives their own opinion in how to combat this negative phenomenon among university students. Their opinion can lead to a solution on how to curb/prevent/solve this transgender problem. Somehow, we also used the existing data from previous related research, government statistics/findings and etc. This is one of the sources that can be trusted to get the whole picture of the transgender issue.

Findings
1. Do you know what transgender is and if yes, could you please specify from where you heard about it.

Out of 30 respondents, 15 are males while another 15 are females. Based on the data, all 30 respondents know what transgender is. It means 100% of them have knowledge on this subject matter.

 Since all of them answered yes on the first question, they have been asked a little bit further regarding the sources of their knowledge.
Table 2: Frequency and percentage of respondents answer of the sources where they get information on transgender. In general, 23 of the respondents answered friends as their sources of knowledge for the subject. It receives the highest votes from the respondent. The lowest vote goes to family with only 6 respondents vote for it. 13 respondents vote for media while 14 respondents agreed that internet are their sources.
male N Family Friends Media Internet 1 11 7 7 % 3% 37% 23% 23% N 5 12 6 7 female % 17% 40% 20% 23% N 6 23 13 14 total % 20% 77% 43% 46%

2. What are the factors that lead to transgender? The existence of transgender among students here makes us eager to find out the factors that lead them to become like that. Based on our research and survey, we have found that there are few factors that could lead to this problem. Parents behavior, friends/peer influences, natural instinct, lack of religious education and mass media. According to a research done by by UTM titled Lelaki Lembut dan Kesannya Kepada Pembentukan Mahasiswa, these 5 factors are the main reason of this problem

Table 3: Frequency and percentage of respondents answer to factors that lead to transgender. More than 50% of the respondent agreed that the most important factors that lead to transgender is lack of religious education. The second and third factors, natural instinct and friends influence both receive fair amount of votes. The least voted a factor is parents behavior.

male N Parents behavior 1 % 3% N -

female % -

total N 1 % 3%

Natural instinct

27%

30%

17

57%

Friends influence

12

40%

17%

17

57%

Lack of religious education

27%

11

37%

19

64%

3. What is your perception towards transgender?

For this question, out of 30 respondents, only 2 respondents said that they have a positive perception towards transgender. Both are male respondents. First respondent said he has a positive perception towards transgender because they are still human like us. Second respondent said that the transgender is not wrong because it is not their fault. It is their natural instinct. 28 respondents have a negative perception towards transgender because of many reasons. Generally, all of them said that transgender give us a negative impact in many ways. Besides that, transgender is against our religion, it is against the nature. Allah SWT has created us like this. Men should be men. Women should be women. No one should change his/her gender. One respondent said transgender cannot be trusted. One respondent said transgender are affecting the composition of men and women. Another one respondent said that transgender show the community itself how bad they are in social life. It can be conclude that 28 respondent out of 30 respondent have a negative perception towards transgender.

4. What is the way to curb this problem? The tables below provide the details of data collected. Table 4: Frequency and percentage of respondents answer of way to curb this problem.
male N Awareness campaign 4 % 13% N 2 female % 7% N 6 total % 20%

Religious education

14

47%

13

43%

27

90%

Enact new law about transgender

23%

20%

13

43%

5. Can you state one effect of transgender towards UiTM students?

This question asked the respondents to state one effect of transgender towards UiTM students. 20 respondents stated that UiTMs image and reputation will be affected by this issue. It is just not about those transgender image and reputation, it also involving our university names as well. It will downgrade our university name. 3 respondents stated that they will cause gender confusion. People cannot point out that are they a male or female because of their attitudes and behavior, appearances, desire and etc. 2 respondents stated this transgender will make the gender population imbalance. 2 respondents stated that that person who involve in transgender cannot be a role model for other person as their behavior have been affected.

2 respondents stated that the transgender will attract other students to do it. Many students are increasingly become transgender too.

Discussion
Transgender involved a male who exhibit female attitude and behavior and vice versa. In Malay they are called as lelaki lembut, pondan, bapok or tomboy, pengkid. It is not a new issue in our society. There are many factors that could lead to the very existence of this community. In this particular research, we make the scope smaller by focusing on UiTM Shah Alam students.

The existence of transgender among students here makes us eager to find out the factors that lead them to become like that. Based on our research and survey, we have found that there are few factors that could lead to this problem. Parents behavior, friends/peer influences, natural instinct, lack of religious education and mass media. According to a research done by by UTM titled Lelaki Lembut dan Kesannya Kepada Pembentukan Mahasiswa, these 5 factors are the main reason of this problem.
Societies as a whole tend to have a negative perception towards them. They are portrayed as a problematic segment of society. They are often rejected, shunned and alienated. This forces them to mingle around with their own friends. Their behavior is cross gender. Male tend to exhibit female behavior and desire while female tend to exhibit male behavior and desire. This is against the nature and norms. Our religion strongly forbids this act. As to curb and prevent this problem from getting worse, we have suggested three possible ways to deal with it. Awareness campaign to spread the awareness about this issue, provide more religious education to be a combat from negative elements and enactment of new law regarding transgender to curb the increasing numbers of people involve with this social problems. As a UiTM student, these people are actually portraying the image and reputation of the university. Furthermore, as a student they are already breaking the rules and regulations of the university. When they behave badly, people will judge upon the university. Indirectly, UiTMs image and reputation will be tarnish.

Conclusion
As a conclusion, it can be deducted that transgender people do exist among UiTM Shah Alam students. They can be recognized from their attire and appearances, attitudes and behaviors and etc. They came from various faculties. These people have formed a network of peers. They must not continue with their behavior as it is strongly forbidden by our religion and the law. As UiTM students, they must take care of the university image and reputations.