The older I get, the less angry I feel about different issues. One could say that I’m either becoming jaded or apathetic.
Seems like a natural progression for many Malaysians after seeing life a bit longer than others.
But the incident where an elderly Malay Muslim man slapped a Chinese youth for eating in public during Ramadan caused my blood to rise and was too much to keep quiet about.
In case you didn’t know, an elderly man was caught on video chastising a Chinese youth, asking for his IC and then slapping him for eating in public.
The man was charged in court but then released via a dismissal not amounting to an acquittal.
He was recharged the same day after a referral to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
How did society get here?
Think about the amount of privilege the elderly man had when he decided to approach the youth. He must have been so full of himself thinking that he had every right to do what he did.
The fact that the youth was doing nothing wrong and had every right to eat in public at that time was lost on him.
It was as if the elderly man thought that everyone in the country had to abide by the rules of Ramadan.
It didn't matter if the people were Muslim or not he just felt that they all had to fast, and if they didn’t, they had no right to eat in public as it was offensive to him.
The question now is - what led this elderly man to feel so privileged that he could act this way? Is it actually how society is today that has ingrained into him that he had a right to do it?
Did society lead him to believe that, as a Malay Muslim, he was entitled to do that?
We need to reflect on how our society has been shaped. We need to make sure that behaviour like this is condemned.
People like this elderly man need to be made to realise that his behaviour, entitlement and privilege are not acceptable in our multiracial and multireligious society.
I am glad that many people, including prominent national leaders, have come out to express their disapproval of his behaviour.
I hope that he will also face the consequences for what he did if he is found guilty so that he will learn a lesson that will also teach others with this same sense of entitlement.
We are all equals
What we don’t need is people coming out to exclaim that consequences also need to be dished out to people who insult the Malays and Islam.
We don’t need anyone saying this because it is not about a conflict between the Malays and the non-Malays, or the Muslims and the non-Muslims.
This is a conflict between an understanding, accepting society and racists as well as bigots. So it goes without saying that if there is anyone who offends any racial or religious group, we need to condemn them.
It doesn’t matter if it is against Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, etc.
No one race or religion deserves any extra attention or privileged treatment. We are all equal in this country called Malaysia.
We need to eradicate this feeling of entitlement and privilege that some people in this country have because it is evil, dangerous and offensive to all of us Malaysians.
We all need to make sure this is unacceptable. - Mkini
ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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