The rise and frequency of instances of racial and religious slurs in the public domain particularly on the social media and the Internet must be a matter of grave concern to all Malaysians.
All right-thinking Malaysians regardless of political affiliation should join hands to call and work for a return of civility, reason and rationality in public discourse and an end to any form of racial or religious slurs particularly on the social media and Internet.
The quality of Malaysian public discourse must not be degraded and sullied by lies and falsehoods, racial bigotry and religious intolerance which can only undermine and subvert the very fabric of Malaysian society.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has called for speedier action by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) against those who post racial or religious slurs and misuse the social networking websites.
MCMC can be assured of public support for any strict action against abuses of the Internet as putting up content with racial and religious slurs which could spark off tension in our country.
The MCMC must, however, jealously protect its credibility and legitimacy by never losing public confidence in its independence, integrity and professionalism as a key institution to protect the national interests and not to be the tool of any sectional or partisan political interests or even the government-of-the-day.
The government can consider implementing the race relations act.
The problems with racism in Malaysia is those who claimed they are anti-racism had no idea how to counter racism. We cannot stop people from expressing their feelings, or else we are no different from those we accused of suppressing freedom. If you see a racist be nice to him or her.
Be nice to animals and racists. they are of the same kind.
It is right to urge that we – it means all parties without ‘double standards’- return to civility, reason and rationality in public discourse and end racial or religious slurs. There is no other way.
Opposition PR should set the tone and do by example by at least NOT insisting, as veteran lawyer Karpal Singh appears to insist, that the Kula Principal be charged for sedition.
It does not mean that the Kulai principal is not wrong and should not be punished for racist statements. She should. She should be reprimanded, demoted, maybe even have a quarter of her pension cut and/or transferred to Timbuktoo for her racist remarks to students, unbecoming of someone holding position as principal of a school. Her punishment is to set a deterrent to other principals and teachers.
But it is altogether different from insisting that she be charged for sedition if they charge Namewee. We have to look at proportionality when insisting criminal sanctions. Most of these people have racist mindset for having gone through either BTN courses or imbibed the racist values of the leaders of society and public opinion – whether former or present ministers of ruling parties or race based NGOs. These are the people most culpable for creating and perpetuating racist mindsets amongst Malaysians. It makes no sense to punish ordinary Malaysians by criminal sanctions – the gravest of all punishment – and keep harmless the molders and influencers of masses’ thoughts and values. Worse still make them arbiter of who is racist and whom is not, who deserving of punishment and whom else not!
Namewee’s case is not a trade off against Kulai principal because Namewee is not even culpable of making racist statements! At best one can fault him for vulgar or crude gestures and insinuations via the Net but even on this one should not punish him more than one is prepared to punish everyone else using the Net the same way. Certainly one should not punish him just because some politicians urge it to be so more to advance their political agenda and score racist points from their own constituencies by being seen taking on the so called racists of the political opponent’s constituencies…
For, often, the greater culprits in purveying racist values are those who have political ambitions, have political agendas to flash race cards to bait for political support and votes and, adopting a-holier-than-thou attitude hypocritically play up, condemn and insist on punishing the powerless of the opposite groups for their racist infractions caused by the first group in the first place!
If you want national healing and not aggravate the racial schism it is a better course not to ratchet up rhetoric to call for penal punishment of ordinary Malaysians ascribed, by their deeds or words, as racist when what they have wrongly done is being taught and nurtured all these years by racist politicians and organizations, whether political parties or NGOs. Even if one incarcerate the Kulai principal with sedition – what do we achieve? – will it make racism less in the country or amongst Malaysians when these politicians, political as well as non government organizations are tolerated or even encouraged to spew their racist ideology with impunity and protection to influence more to be racists??? Go and hound the real culprits – if you have the guts!
If Namee is racist than what about Utusan Malaysia. ?
Why ask MCMC to monitor racism on the net when it is on the front pages of Utusan every other day?
Namee would not acted the way he did had action been taken against the racist Kulai Principle.
All of what najib says are been openly trampled by umno and Perkasa.
Hey! do something about the doctored picture of this famous CM of Penang.
The PM said zero tolerance to racial slurs and said that all races must respect the multi racial and religious sensitivities of each and every race in the country in order to achieve 1malaysia. Well did his message just fall short into the ears of the PDRM ? The latest incident comes from an officer incharged of a station,telling the victim to go back to china if she can’t speak proper BM. The list can go on and on,no doubt about it unless Najib,his deputy and the whole cabinet of his must push his message ( zero tolerance of racial slurs or remarks) across the board especially within the BN and the civil services. On top of these,the PM must walk the talk or must take immediate action against anyone if found guillty irrespective of any grouping/race,religion or society.In another word,please no double standard liken the case of Namewee and the JB school principal.The question is can Najib do it ?
BRO
HAYATI ”””NEGARAKUKU’ OLEH NAMEWEE BARU TAU SIAPA PERKAUMAN. JANGAN LE CUBA MELINDUNGI KRONI SENDIRI.
We all know dis nice talk of civility, reason n rationality in public discourse CANNOT work 1
Simply bcos UmnoB/BN, Perkosa, Utusan M r d ones keep harping on Ketuanan Melayu n twisting molehills into mountains
D record of events would tell us so
What da blardy joke!!!
Who started the thing first?
Now you’re accusing others when situation get out of control.
Please clean your backyard first!
Then I salute you, Mr PM!
NOT ONLY UMNO/BN, PERKASA OR UTUSAN M BUT ALSO LIM KIT SIANG DAP AND WORST OF ALL PEOPLE LIKE U boh-liao AND NAMEWEE
Yes, I agree. MCMC sould also ban websites like Malaysia Today which is spinning out as many scandals as there are weeks in the year. Funny, how so many of thoose weekly scandals turn out to be true. No matter, MCMC must ban Malaysia Today.
Now with the latest expose in Malaysia Today, there is going to be a rush of applications for memberships of golf clubs, driving ranges are going to see full bookings, job applications for golf caddies are going to see a huge spike (because caddies won’t be getting crumbs or golf balls, they are expecting huge spinouts from the golf deals!), golfing accessories shops should see a manifold increase in business – all because everybody wants to be PM Najib’s new golf partner in 2011!
UMNOB is not about to stop playing the race card and will continue to stir-up racial tensions as more cans of worms are opened, the more recent being the missing RM 52 billion worth of shares belonging to Bumiputra Malays. They are fully aware that Malay support for UMNOB is dwindling. They used the same tricks many times before to scare and to distract the public from the real issues, but this time around things are not going their way; driving them to use desperate measures to save their own skins.
The Malays have woken-up to the harsh reality that they have been manipulated and betrayed by leaders who are of their own race; leaders who claim to be championing their special position and rights as ” Tuans” of the land for their own selfish agendas.
Ex-PM Mahathir has good reasons to worry as more skeletons keep falling out of UMNOB closets. He has forgotten his famous Wawasan 2020, instead turns himself into ”Father of all racists” ( in the words of Datuk Seri Nazri, Minister in the PM’s Department ) Not the least surprising because will be the biggesr loser should PR takes over Putrajaya. He has to leave this country to keep his promise.
If you ask my opinion (and it’s only 2 cents worth), let’s forget about the issue of race for the moment and focus on what UMNO has really got for the Malay race for the past 4 decades or so. All it takes is for the ordinary Melayu folks to give PR just only one mandate during the GE13 to take over Putrajaya and with that mandate, the new PR govt should commence a complete audit and investigation into what happened to the country’s wealth…how and to whom it was divided to. Put all high profile projects since the time of the “Mahascam” era of dictatorship under the microscope and examine the transactions that transpired. Remember that CBT, corruption, theft and all sundry that is defined as a criminal act do not have any time (or statutory) bar. The cases relating to MAS, PKFZ and other mega scandals are good places to start a thorough probe…one that’s No Holds Barred…done without fear or favour and the results should be made public to all Malaysians to see. Then only will we all see where our hard earned money went to. All it takes is just one GE13 to have a better Malaysia (the 1Malaysia in the truest sense). There will be no cover up, no lies and no shouting of ketuanan to divert attention….just pure and simple facts. How about it, my Malay brothers, are you guys up to it??? If PR don’t deliver or stand up to expectation, then come GE14 just simply vote them out. GE13 is the Rakyats’ chance, collectively, to find out how much damage this present govt has done to our beloved country.
Abang,
Sekurang-kurangnya awak terima hakikat dan kata “NOT ONLY UMNO/BN, PERKASA OR UTUSAN M BUT ALSO LIM KIT SIANG DAP AND WORST OF ALL PEOPLE LIKE U boh-liao AND NAMEWEE”.
Apa pasai?, hanya namewee yang kena (walaupun dia hanya kasar bukannya racist), guru kepala besar berkenaan tidak pun kena investigate? Takda pun Cina Apek kepala besar Ridzuan Tee itu kena investigate? Takda pun si-gemuk kepala besar, kaki songkok-tinggi kepala besar daripada Perkosa yang kena investigate? Apa pangsai? kalau pukan kepala mereka besar? tepuk dada tanya selera atau tepuk buah dada siok sendiri…..
Does Najib mean to say only “official” information channels (newspaper, TV, speeches by Perkasa/BN politicians and government blogs) have the right to make racist remarks? Is racism now a BN monopoly?
Everyone else must be mind full and polite?
The strange thing about those who insulted the non-Malays are not ordinary working-class people. Two school heads and a police officer with good paying jobs could not be so foolish as to risk their ‘periok nasi’ making racial slurs. More likely they were only acting out their parts in a wayang kulit with assuarances by the puppet master that no action would be taken against them. Note that they all used the same line; ”balik negeri cina” All this smacks of a sinister plot to ‘trap’ opposition PR leaders into making a small mistake, thereby, giving them the opportunity to conduct ”Op Lalang II”
PR leaders would do well not playing into their hands. Berhati-hati di perjalanan ke Putrajaya?
correction: Berhati-hati dalam perjalanan ke Putrajaya.
PoliticoKat #15
Dia itu semua orang gua. Jadi boleh cakap apa-apa saja, tak bersalah. Orang cina cakap salah, orang India cakap pun salah. Engkau semua orang Anwar. Sekarang boleh fahan ka?????
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.
-Jimmy Carter
Is there civility in 1M’sia, esp intra n inter political parties?
Look at d dogfights in every political party: UmnoB, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, DAP, PKR ….
Actually I agree fully. What is the public discourse on race and religion right now? You examine UMNO/BN and Perkasa argument and its not about logic and reason anymore. Its largely about power now. They have given up on reason, trying to hold on to whatever power they can without blowing up everything they have.
UMNO/BN Mahathirist influenced party believes ultimately in the end-justify-the-means. It does not matter what your logic are or even what the reality of sentiments are among Malaysian. Their power is the ultimate end and everything else is dispensable.
They are already there given the highly marginal arguments of Najib & KJ. They are already there near breaking point of logic and reason.
Reason ? It’s staring at us through the barrel of a gun.
Now just what is going in puduraya? Workers there (according to food operators in the vicinity) complained that they were not being paid their due salaries. And because of that they are not willing to work.
Anyone here can confirm this info?
Why no political party care to release The Reid Commission Report produced in February 1957 before the Malaya granted independent in the report stated the article 153 should be review times to times of quota till phase out.
This is the solutions to the core problem of over 53 years.
The review based on black and white document agreement before independent, do not review based self-claimed fact not in black and white document.
Have the report release to thousands of Malaysian read it and may the malay honor his ancestors agreement in he Reid Commission Report.
Malaya was formed by 3 races Malay, Chinese and India.
Without Chinese and India vote support to Alliance before independent, this land highly already fallen into Indonesia hand.
Cseng,
U cakap namewee tak racist, u study le lirik NEGARAKUKU yg di nyanyikan nya. Bukan setakat MELAYU SAHAJA DIPERLEKEHKAN TETAPI MENCACI DAN MENGHINA UGAMA ISLAM. SAMPAI AZAN PUN DIPERMAINKAN.
ITU BUKAN RACIST. PI TENGOK DISCOVERY ‘EMERGENCY IN MALAYA’ KALAU MAJLIS RAJA2 TAK PERKENAN ORANG CINA DAN ORANG INDIA TIDAK DAPAT PENGIFTRAFAN WARGANEGARA LE
Abang;
Kalau U nak kata namewee racist, say biar shj, pasai meritocracy pun racist juga. Tapi takkan pangil pelajar cina balik cina, kata india pakai tali seperti anjing bukan racist? kenapa selalu shj namewee kena investigate, Nagarakuku pun kena, balas lagu dengan racist itu pun dia shj kena? apa pasai, kenapa? itu yang saya tanya, ada paham ka?
Tie up that Inshah and Naamewee to the same street light, back to back. The One can curse Non-Malays and the Other can rap out repartees the whole night long.
Merdeka! Selamat Hari Raya!