The urgent need in dealing with racism

Many rightfully responded by choosing not to buy into politicians playing the race card.

FMT LETTERS

By Concerned Malaysian

Of the many articles published in regards to recent Red Shirts event, the point in ‘Reflections on the failure to combat racism (Reflections on the failure to combat racism) needs to be echoed and to also further highlight the disappointing level of condemnation of hate speech throughout that episode.

Many rightfully responded by choosing not to buy into politicians playing the race card. But in times when blatant hate speech goes unpunished and a racially inciteful rally with threats of violence gets tacit approval from the government (even though molly-coddled and ‘re-packaged’ along the way), just responding to it by not buying into fear mongering and countering it via positive events does not seem enough anymore.

Let us be reminded that even if those who oppose the racist rhetoric choose not to buy into UMNO’s narrative, the effects of further polarization, emboldenment of bigots, and adding fuel to the racism that has been simmering, remains a very real and latent danger, whatever the political reasons behind it.

It is one thing to tell the Chinese community not to spread unfounded racial rumours, but another to convince them that there is still hope in this country when there is actual video documentation of how a case of theft can easily turn into a racial event of innocent Chinese boys being pulled out from their car and beaten up. Pockets of events such as these reveal the underlying racism that is fueled and continue to be used by politicians for their own ends; how long more can this nation continue with such threats being used, unleashed, and contained by politicians at their whim?

As mentioned in ‘Reflections on the failure to combat racism’- ‘we ourselves have not taken enough action to aggressively reject racial discrimination in Malaysia’. When “Cina Turun Bersih, Sedia Bermandi Darah” posters were circulated, one of the few Malays I recall expressing the appropriate level of condemnation and concern for such violently racist posters was Pak Samad.
(Pak Samad decries ‘Chinese bloodbath’ posters‘) Is it because the rest, even if they don’t agree with it, would rather dismiss it as ‘just another political game/ploy’ to be ignored and not given attention to? We dismiss them at the risk of normalising racism and emboldening bigots in our society, whatever the reason that may be.

As of writing, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim expressed the need for ‘leading Malay figures critical of the government and Umno to start a new movement’ against violent racism (Umno turning malays into violent rogues for political ends says ex minister). Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah opined that ‘we live a compartmentalised life.

This is compounded by the pluralistic nature of our society and our lackadaisical attitude towards the ethos and worldview of Malaysians who are not of the same ethnicity as us.’.. and that ‘Malays must admit that they have a blinkered view regarding other Malaysian communities. (Challenges in nation building Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah). The same can be said of other communities in Malaysia.

The time was yesterday that we take interest in understanding the worldviews of Malaysians different from us to effectively move forward across communities and divides in dealing urgently with racism. If we did perhaps more Malays would genuinely understand the fears of the Chinese community who were targets of politicians playing the race card, and felt more compelled to speak up at a higher level of condemnation.

If we did perhaps some of the Chinese rally-goers at Bersih would have placards in BM instead of in Mandarin. We must also deal with racial chauvinism from non-Malay communities. We need to urgently find ways at all levels to deal with racism, and in particular racially violent threats; to do that requires us to make a strong stand against it so that it will not cause further divides along racial lines.

Concerned Malaysian is an FMT reader.