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The unrelenting ill-treatment suffered by mak nyahs, or Malaysian pre-operative and post-operative male-to-female transsexuals, indicates a steady process of dehumanisation that besieges mak nyahs in contemporary Malaysia. Nevertheless, the 2000s have seen a groundswell of strategies by mak nyahs to dismantle forces that seek to dehumanise them, and thus to embrace self-empowerment. By analysing online media resources, information from communication networks and legal cases pertaining to mak nyahs, we aim to explain the ways in which the strategies of mak nyahs and their allies to dismantle dehumanisation and empower themselves are framed and mobilised in Malaysia in the 2000s. To this end, we draw on a two-fold analytical framework that comprises David A Snow’s and Robert D Benford’s notion of collective action frames, and Michael W McCann’s legal mobilisation theory, in order to interpret our analysis. We argue that although mak nyahs have encountered dehumanising forces such as violence, pathologisation and reparative therapy, religious denunciations and moral policing, they have responded with diverse empowerment strategies that include the telling of personal stories, increasing public visibility, eliciting international recognition and support, forming alliances and organising collective action and legal recourse.

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The death penalty in Malaysia is a British colonial legacy that has undergone significant scrutiny in recent times. While the Malaysian Federal Constitution 1957 provides that ‘no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law’, there are several criminal offences (including drug-related crimes) that impose the mandatory and discretionary death penalty. Using Benford and Snow’s framing processes, this paper reviews death penalty politics in Malaysia by analysing the rhetoric of abolitionists and retentionists. The abolitionists, comprising activist lawyers and non-government organisations, tend to use ‘human rights’ and ‘injustice’ frames, which humanise the ‘criminal’ and gain international support. The retentionists, such as victims’ families, use a ‘victims’ justice’ frame emphasising the ‘inhuman’ nature of violent crimes. In addition, the retentionist state shifts between ‘national security’ and ‘national development’ frames. This paper finds that death penalty politics in Malaysia is predominantly a politics of framing.

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