One of Malaysia’s top police officials has said that the “LGBT culture” cannot be accepted in the country owing to community and cultural sentiments and that for this reason openly LGBT should not be employed by the police force.

Noor Rashid was responding to a question from media on whether the police force in Malaysia would change in line with changing times and the growing acceptance of such people in the West and even in India.

“Till today, the LGBT culture is not accepted in this country, so based on that principle, we still maintain the current quota for men and women,” Noor Rashid told a press conference here at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) in Jalan Semarak.

“If they have the qualification, they have to adhere to the practices accepted in this country.”

The remarks were followed by an editorial in Malay daily Utusan Malaysia in which editors said they agreed with the police’s decision to refuse LGBT recruits, claiming that religious principles and traditional values remain central in the country.

“The development in several Western countries that opened up recruitment to this group and the latest in India involving the acceptance of an LGBT candidate as police officer, is not a motivation that requires Malaysia to take a similar step,” it said.

The editorial, which was published under the collective pseudonym of Awang Selamat, went on to suggest that rejecting LGBT candidates may be difficult.

“It is difficult to detect the characteristics of some of the LGBT [candidates] during interview sessions and the probation period, as well as in tough training,” it said.