When the issue of race clouds judgement

Recent racially-laced antics and utterings have shown us the ugly side of Malaysian life on the road and in our courtrooms.

COMMENT

By Ishmael Lim

Even as the shock of MH17 eclipsed other news for a time, the marching drums of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Perkasa never once missed a beat.

They have been busy fending off online criticism of Kiki’s antics, as well as those of former chief justice  Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad.

Although Perkasa spared the Inspector General of Police a picketing for bringing Kiki to book, they made it publicly known that they were passing the hat around to help pay her RM5,000 fine.

Many find this action of Perkasa’s more disgusting than Kiki’s outburst. At least Kiki’s inappropriate rage was genuine. What is Perkasa’s excuse?

Some may argue that 240 hours of community service plus a fine is too harsh. But I am solidly behind the police on this for a change. They saw and heard the deed in full colour and audio, and were duty bound to act. Too bad the Perkasa boys didn’t offer to do community service alongside Kiki.

Possibly the spectacle of Kiki’s apology to “all Malaysia” on TV3 proved too demeaning for Perkasa, as “all Malaysia” includes the “pendatangs”.

It’s ironic that what has followed is far uglier than the event itself.

A minor accident has been transformed by Perkasa into a clash of competing racists egos, with the NGO justifying its actions as befitting the title of Protector of Malays.

Kiki wannabes might now feel it justified to be abusive and aggressive as long as it is for the kind of endeavour that Perkasa approves.

Perhaps Kiki has been elevated to some kind of a poster girl, much like Dyana Sofia of DAP.

Kiki was trending high on social media; so a free ride on that fame train may have proven too tempting for Lim Kit Siang to resist. He offered DAP’s legal aid to Kiki.

Kiki is symbolic of the brash bullies and racists in Perkasa, who work to keep Umno relevant and in power.

This is hypocritical and in direct conflict with the Prime Minister’s vision of a 1Malaysia.

The link between Perkasa and Umno’s top leaders is hard to deny, and akin to Putin disavowing his support for separatists in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. How else would Perkasa have escaped prosecution thus far?

Pigeon-holing Abdul Hamid and his recent outspokenness against the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), DAP, Christians and Chinese is less complicated.

Except for NUCC, which came on the scene relatively recently, these hobby horses have been ridden tirelessly by Perkasa since its founding in 2008.

In his outlandish statements, Abdul Hamid leveraged more on his authority as a former chief justice and as an opinion leader than on substance in his arguments. His credibility has been brought into serious doubt, now that he has exposed his bigoted views.

More importantly, decisions rendered by him while on the bench may have been compromised by his personal convictions, as strongly suggested by the recent revelations by former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram.

Kiki and Abdul Hamid are symptomatic of a tainted system that is inclined to use a default mode of intimidation and threat to demand submission and acquiescence in any potentially competitive encounter.

It is convenient to perceive every lack of accommodation as a threat to dignity and legitimate privilege.

This avoids the need therefore to acknowledge anybody else’s rights but their own. This sense of special entitlement in children manifests as brattishness, which most kids grow out of.

In the grand scheme of things, if Dr.Mahathir understood then what he understands now about how the Internet and social media can liberalise the Malaysian communications model, and how it can level the playing field for politics, he might not have promoted it as vigorously as he did.

So now cyber trolls and thugs disguised as NGOs try to recapture what the establishment has lost.