Immense organisation running this Umno-linked Facebook group!
We are running this so that our readers as well as leaders of the country will realize that the organizers of this Facebook group ‘Menentang penggunaan nama Allah oleh golongan bukan Muslim’ (reviewed here) are planting the seeds of extremism and discord in young minds. The fire that they are intent on fanning can easily get out of control if not already.
By Eyes Wide Open / Centre for Policy Initiatives
This article first appeared under the title ‘Umno is winning the propaganda wars again’ on Jan 11, 2010 in the Hartal MSM blog. It has been edited by CPI with permission from its author – the blogger Eyes Wide Open (EWO) who is part of the Hartal MSM mediawatch team.
We are running this so that our readers as well as leaders of the country will realize that the organizers of this Facebook group ‘Menentang penggunaan nama Allah oleh golongan bukan Muslim’ (reviewed here) are planting the seeds of extremism and discord in young minds. The fire that they are intent on fanning can easily get out of control if not already.
We would also like to highlight the role of likely agent provocateurs who have planted some of the more inflammatory statements to instigate sentiments.
A series of Screenshots that we’ve taken (see below) shows an incendiary call to jihad by a Facebook user ‘Fadzil Muhammad’ who apparently has no ‘friends’ in his account and no past history of activity on his home page. These are giveaway clues that this Facebooker has only freshly created a bogus profile-cum-online identity for the purpose of participating in the ‘Allah’ group.
EWO also points to the individual ‘Singh is Kinng’ credited as ‘article officer’ and who was earlier an administrator of the Facebook group. EWO describes this character as an “ultra-Malay blogger” and indeed we have been alerted by the Hartal team of their strong suspicion that this Facebooker and blog commentator is very probably no Sikh at all.
We note with alarm several identities that are suspect who have been planting incendiary comments in blogosphere, under assumed anonymous monikers that overtly imply a certain racial identity. Under these misleading pseudonyms, they post racist and provocative comments that are intended to further aggravate the racial and religious divide.
We hold that Umno Youth, due to its fingerprints all over this Facebook group, has some hard questions to answer to help facilitate police investigation into the threats to public order following the attacks on churches.
We also hold that Umno Youth owe an explanation to Malaysians on how it can justify the continued association of some of its prominent office bearers with this cyber group seemingly infiltrated by rabble rousers. If the Youth wing does not distance itself immediately, it conveys the impression that the party supports the inciting comments that are posted there.
