A Malaysia Day video showing Malaysians refusing to say racist things for money has gone viral on social media with many users, including some known personalities, admitting they shed tears after watching it, and that it gave them hope for the future.
After sharing the video from the Malay Mail Online website on her Facebook page this afternoon, social activist Marina Mahathir used the opportunity to issue a shout-out to “racists” in Malaysia.
“Take that all you racists! Malaysians are just better than that,” the daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wrote.
Speaking to Malay Mail Online later, Marina said it was no big surprise to her that the participants in the video titled “Are Malaysians racist?” had genuinely rejected money offers to utter derogatory remarks about members of the other races.
“I think we’ve always known there are non-racists out there, but they are rarely given any space to say so.
“So yes, this is great, and yes, it does give hope. We need more of this to counter the racists,” Marina told Malay Mail Online.
In the video, Malaysians of various ethnic groups — who did not know that they were being filmed — were asked to say derogatory statements about another race, like Malays are lazy, Chinese are “pendatang” (immigrants) and Indians are smelly.
But they refused to repeat those stereotypes even when they were offered money, with one respondent saying that she would not do so even if she were given a million ringgit.
Several Malaysians said the five-and-a-half-minute long video, which went viral since its launch at 12pm today with over 6,500 Facebook shares as at 6pm, had made them tear up.
“I cried at the 3min mark. In light of current events, and constant goading by fascist, right-wing elements, I think it’s alright to cry when watching this,” PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil tweeted at his @fahmi_fadzil account.
DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said he loved the video.
“It just confirmed our gut feeling — many of us do not believe that Malaysians are racists. Many of us do not think we hate one another and are ever ready to slit one another’s throat at the slightest provocation, as some would have us believe,” Sim told Malay Mail Online.
“And it confirmed our deepest hope that there is still a bright future for a multi-racial harmonious Malaysia,” he added.
Some people, however, said the non-racist attitudes exhibited in the video were not reflective of the general Malaysian population.
“It’s too urban-centric,” lawyer New Sin Yew told Malay Mail Online.
“Racism is more apparent in non-urban areas. But it feels good lah. It’s good to see that,” he added.
But PR manager Alex Liew, 26, dismissed such criticism and noted that the video — which featured English-speaking Malaysians living in the urban Klang Valley — was not meant to represent the entire country.
“But I suppose I can take comfort that there are at least a handful of Malaysians’ houses I can run to just in case of another you know... racial riot,” Liew posted on Facebook. - Malay Mail
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