The ugly Malaysian

The helicopter crash in Sarawak prompts some tasteless remarks on social media.

COMMENT

When news broke on Thursday of a helicopter going missing in Sarawak, many Malaysians must have prayed that nothing untoward had happened to sadden the nation with yet another aviation tragedy.

Despite having prepared themselves for the worst, they must been jolted by the subsequent report of the discovgery of wreckage and evidence of death of at least one of the people on board.

But they would have been equally shocked – and perhaps equally saddened – if they had seen some of the early reactions on social media. There were evidently Malaysians who actually rejoiced at the news.

Some of the comments on Facebook and other social media platforms were so tasteless and insensitive as to make one wonder whether intense politicking has resulted in the loss of human decency in certain sections of the Malaysian public.

There were those who wished that Prime Minister Najib Razak was on board the helicopter and others who said it would be good if all the passengers were BN politicians. Worse, these were the sort of comments that received the most “likes”.

Many would agree that no amount of displeasure with government policies or political personalities justifies such malignity.

It appears that decent Malaysians now have to bear not only sadness over the tragedy but also shame over the behaviour of some of their compatriots.