Responding to BN inspired racism and prejudice

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Aug 26, 2009

By Malaysian Heart

"Encouraging racism and sowing distrust and fear of other races has become BN's strategy of choice. It's leaders, along with their mainstream media, Biro Tatanegara, and blogger mouthpieces, are hard at work, spreading their message of racism and bigotry. Their message is simplicity itself: the races in Malaysia cannot trust each other or work with each other, because the every race is out to victimise and dispossess the others. Only the "strong" hand of BN, with the help of unjust laws like the ISA, OSA, PPPA etc. can "protect" their respective races, and keep them from killing each other in another May 13."

While reading the readers' comments that came in response to the post "Fail, Mr Home Minister, fail!" over at Hartal MSM, I came across one that I believe exemplifies the kind of racist and prejudiced thinking that BN is trying to inculcate amongst Malaysians. I reproduce my response to it here, but first we need to read the comment itself, and an earlier comment which it was addressed at.

Here is the first comment to the post, by "Leong Yook Kong", to which the subsequent one was addressed:

1. Leong Yook Kong | August 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Kerisman, you are the Home Minister, right. You should give a firm instruction to the police to carry out a thorough investigation into the arson case and to bring to book the real and actual culprit/culprits. If the police cannot do it, sack all of them and bring in the overseas investigators to do the job for them. Get the IGP involved in this case. He just cannot relax and wait for 13 September 2009 to see whether his contract is extended or not.

How can the Home Minister act like a small boy when he said the next target will be the police and the prisons? Where is the preventive measure? Kerisman, the RAKYAT want love (true love), happiness, peace and security.

For it is man’s rejection of love and loving laws that causes most of the evils and troubles in the world today.

Here is the response to Leong's comment, by "Abdul Rahman Mohd. Sharif":

11. abdul rahman mohd.sharif | August 24, 2009 at 10:06 am

Woi…woii..woi…WOW!! Leong. The IGP do not wish to extend the contract. Satisfied…… Hishamuddin, please shut up and just do your work. Don’t make any comments. Let all this bonkers wonder whats next.
Guys. In the first place, why are you not the MACC, police or in the prison depart? Its not a good place to be, right? Its always this lot of people call ‘MALAY’ whose stupid enough to enrol into one.
Its so easy heh!! Attacking those stupid lot.
If this is your beloved country called MALAYsia then work into one. Ease these departments from all these setbacks that you are so concerned. Allow your kids to be one of them. Help your kids to change all these embarassment.
Be a Malaysian my friend. Your mother tounge IS Malaysia not China or India. No more china’s or India’s mentality. No more chinese or indias school. DO NOT BE A RACIST. (I know I’ll be attcked for these sentence-go ahead shoot)
MERDEKA,MERDEKA,MERDEKA and Selamat Hari Raya.

Finally, here is a much lengthier version of my response to Abdul Rahman Mohd. Sharif:

Abdul Rahman Mohd. Sharif seems to be saying that Leong and others were "attacking" Malays when they criticised the police, MACC and/or the prisons department. Is he justified in saying so?

Looking at the comments by Leong and others here, there isn't a single mention of the word "Malay", until Abdul Rahman brings it up himself. How did he come to that conclusion? Does he believe, that criticising someone who happens to be from a particular group means that one is criticising (or is anti) the entire group? Such a belief is misguided; as I have written elsewhere:

"Criticizing a person who happens to be Malay doesn't necessarily mean that I am anti-Malay. Going by that logic, anyone who criticizes wee ka siong is anti-chinese, the person who murdered kugan is anti-indian, and if kugan's murderer happened to be an orang-putih, prosecuting him would be anti-orang putih too. Subscribing to this type of logic would mean the end of civil society in Malaysia & a descent into the tribalism & ketaksuban of zaman jahiliah, when supporting your clan was more important than standing for justice & fairness. If we are to progress as a nation, people who are truly "Malaysian at Heart" need to go beyond seeing things from a race based, assabiah perspective."

Next, Abdul Rahman seems to be questioning the loyalty of the commenters here. He writes, "If this is your beloved country called MALAYsia then work into one. Ease these departments from all these setbacks that you are so concerned. Allow your kids to be one of them. Help your kids to change all these embarassment." He has a valid point in saying that if we love Malaysia we will work to improve it. However, he fails to realise that criticism is part of that improvement. If we do not even realise that Malaysia needs improvement, there will never be positive change. Unfortunately, people like Abdul Rahman are disregarding valid criticism because they choose to see it as racially motivated.

He also has a point, and I agree with him, when he says that more Malaysian minorities should join Malaysian law enforcement and armed forces. However, I believe that we need to find ways to overcome the discrimination, official and unofficial, that minorities face when they join the government service in general. What are these discriminations? Although this is just one example, it seems to be representative of what they face: here and here. Will Abdul Rahman help in the efforts to eradicate such discrimination and unfair treatment?

Finally, Abdul Rahman seems to be accusing commenters here of being racist, and of not being "Malaysian" enough; because (as he says):
1) they speak Chinese or Indian
2) they have "china’s or India’s mentality" (whatever that means)
3) they go to a Chinese or Indian school

Racism is defined as:

a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

Can Abdul Rahman show how and why Malaysians who speak Chinese/Indian, have been to Chinese/Indian schools, or have Chinese/Indian "mentalities" necessarily meet any of those three criteria, or are somehow not Malaysian enough? I doubt that he can. There is actually some evidence to the contrary: the National Youth Survey 2008 conducted by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research showed that, when asked the question "If you can only choose one identity, would you say that you are…?", 52% of respondents who had been to a Chinese school chose Malaysian as their identity. In contrast, 39% & 37% of those who had been to National & Tamil schools respectively, identified themselves as Malaysians first. So, at least one part of Abdul Rahman's assertion seems to be based on prejudice towards others.

On the other hand, isn't Abdul Rahman the one who is demonstrating racism here, by exhibiting his intolerance for other races, their language, "mentality" and human rights?

Unfortunately, this type racism is now becoming too common in Malaysia. Why wouldn't it be, when it is officially encouraged by Barisan Nasional? At the same time that they are promoting "One Malaysia" with their catchy song and glitzy logo, they are also sowing intolerance and racism, via their mainstream media such as Utusan Malaysia, and pro-BN blogs.