Will racism be our undoing?

Najib must rein in the hate mongers.

COMMENT

Racial insults are not new in Malaysian discourse, but there have been more outbursts in the public domain in recent times, and the culprits have included serving and retired public officials, whose targets are Chinese and Indian Malaysians.

These two communities have been called “pendatang” and “pencoroboh”, told to “balik Tongsan” or “balik India” and subjected to various other disparaging remarks. Even their religions and customs have been scorned.

Call it a coincidence if you like, but racial slurs have become especially audacious and the mainstream papers have become more willing to print them since Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak delivered his victory speech at the close of the 13th general election.

Najib has defended that speech a couple of times, denying that it was meant to cause enmity between Malays and non-Malays, especially the Chinese. But there is no denying that many people interpret it as a reprimand from the Barisan Nasional chief, directed at the Chinese among the coalition’s erstwhile supporters. He complained that BN’s victory was less than spectacular because there had been a “Chinese tsunami” in favour of the opposition.

If it was indeed a mere reprimand, reasonable people should just shrug off the speech as the ranting utterance of a man who, having come close to defeat, was still shivering from the fear of it.

But the trouble is that some war hawks seem to have interpreted the speech as a signal from the Umno President that it is now acceptable to attack the ungrateful ‘pendatangs’.

We shudder to think what will happen when the objects of insult start feeling they can take it no more and decide to hurl insults of their own. This is already happening in social media. We fear that things will spiral out of control.

It is time to rein in the hatred-spewing politicians, activists and ultras. And the person to do it is Najib because there is a chance they will heed his voice of authority if it is used firmly enough.

Najib must condemn the bigots and reaffirm his commitment to the ideals of his 1Malaysia (although he must first explain what those ideals are, as specifically as possible). The portrayal of happy multiracial faces on billboards and in government-sponsored advertising is farcical in the context of the dangerous situation we are in. The more pessimistic among us are already saying that our nation is hurtling towards self-destruction, torn to pieces by racism.

Note that Malaysians of all races contributed to our medals tally in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games. That is a sign, if any is needed, that the multicultural character of our nation is a source of strength if we know how to use it.

If we can work as a national team in sports, why can’t we do so in other activities? We can work as a team to fight poverty, raise our standard of living, stamp out corruption, set up a better education system for our children, develop a national culture we can all be proud of. The list can go on and on.

But first things first. We have waited for some time to hear Najib unequivocally condemning racist statements coming from people who are politically aligned with him either directly as Umno members or indirectly through Umno-supporting NGOs.

We know he is a busy man, but he must treat this matter as urgent.

Over to you, Mr. Prime Minister.