Why are rightists so enraged by Team McLaren featuring Batu Caves ahead of this weekend’s F1 race?

 

TO “drag someone’s name through the mud” means to publicly damage, ruin or disgrace a person, organisation or country’s reputation by saying bad, insulting or scandalous things about them.

It can also be used to describe a person’s conduct that is unbecoming, thus giving a poor reflection of his or her place of origin.

This is the accusation hurled by Threader Naveen (@veentagram) at some Malaysians who have sullied the good name of the nation.

Their crime? By displaying their bigoted and prejudiced opinions for all and sundry to view on the F1 outfit’s social media platform that has over five million worldwide followers.

Referring to a post on the McLaren F1 Team’s social media platform promoting the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix (which had been moved to the Sepang International Circuit due to regional conflict), the poster professed deep embarrassment that certain Malaysians had made racist remarks pertaining to its promo image.

What was so offensive? An image of the famed Batu Caves Śrī Subramaniar Swamy Devasthanam temple had been used to promote the big race scheduled for this weekend (Oct 2-4).

This snapshot capturing Malaysia’s diversity had apparently not gone down well with certain netizens with a rightist streak.

The poster lamented that such comments with racist undertones were there for an international audience to see and had advised one offending netizen to not bring shame and disrepute to the country. Instead of remorse, the plea was met with more racist invective.

Tit-for tat reaction equally damaging

Similarly offensive remarks (from other social media platforms) were shared by another commenter who agreed that posts such as this had sullied the good name of the country.

This sentiment was echoed by various commenters, including fair-minded Malays who are uneasy with the Malay supremacy narrative that is being pushed.

One netizen noted that Batu Caves is an iconic landmark, hence those who made negative comments were displaying their “high levels of stupidity”.

This lack of gray matter was a recurring theme throughput the discussion with many pointing out that there was nothing wrong using Batu Caves to promote Malaysia.

This is, after all, a nation with melting pot populace and the shrine is an internationally-recognised tourist attraction.

A F1 follower highlighted that the McLaren F1 Team probably did NOT use images of the PETRONAS Twin Towers as the national oil company is a sponsor for a rival outfit, namely the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team.

This constant hurling of insults at non-Malays by rightist has obviously created serious schisms as can be seen from tit-for-tat comments that resorted to similar racial slurs.

A few things to note about this sorry episode.

Firstly, the ugly Malaysian with racist tendencies has now gone international. Social media allows their fetid types to spew their abhorrent views not just in local forums but on platforms that have millions of followers worldwide.

Do these rightists think that the rest of the world will suddenly put its collective weight behind their twisted agenda? Or will it merely just give off the impression that Malaysia is a land inhabited by bigots.

Secondly, the narrative being peddled is clear. These rightists do NOT want the country to be represented in any shape or form that is non-Malay Muslim.

Multi-culturalism and diversity are anathema to those who cling on to the concept of Tanah Melayu. After all, many images were used on the McLaren social media sites to promote the race taking place on Malaysian soil; it was not limited to Batu Caves.

Thirdly, why aren’t the authorities doing anything about such social media abusers that are sullying the good name of the country.

It is one thing when comments are made on Malaysian platforms but it is quite another when it is on an international platform on the eve of a major global sporting event.

Isn’t it time to make an example of some of these “patriots”? Such content is counteractive to the efforts of hosting the race (on behalf of Bahrain) as all it does is highlight the negative aspects of Malaysian society.

It can even be argued that such online riff raff is no better than upside down flag flyers. If there are calls to deal with the latter sternly, it is suggested that online vermin that tarnishes the country’s image should be similarly dealt with.

The end result is a very poor reflection of Malaysian society which isn’t what the country wants when playing host to international events. 

- Focus Malaysia