By Parkaran Kutty
There is an old adage which says, “sorry is the hardest thing to say”, but Malaysians are now seeing the opposite. From politicians to corporate communication officers, an apology seems to be the easiest and most convenient thing to do.
The attitude is simple - do the damage and score all the political points first because many Malaysians tend to believe the first strike, ignoring what follows even if it’s the truth. And most of the time, the apologies are not from their hearts and are conditional. They tend to add a qualifier like “I apologies IF what I said has affected some of them…”
AmBank apologised after a homeless man was mistreated outside its Taman Maluri branch. With just a word of sorry, the bank tried to absolve itself of any blame although it involved a security guard supplied by its contractor.
She and a cobbler nearby kicked and hosed the homeless man sleeping on the five-foot way of the bank premises in broad daylight. The bank officers must have known what was happening near its entrance. Yet, no one came outside to stop the aggressors and do the right thing. No wonder many netizens were asking if the security guard was doing what the bank boss had asked her to do.
No one knows this for sure.
Ambank could have done much more to win the hearts of Malaysians. The man was hungry and obviously disoriented. His physical and mental state were in a complete state of disarray. The least it could have done was to offer some food and drinks first. Then it should have alerted the police and welfare authorities.
Instead of this, it just allowed the inhumane act to continue. Then it apologised with mere words, no firm action was seen. This does not amount to justice done; it was a quick escape route to escape the attention it received.
However, in this moment of madness and cruelty by two individuals, one man stood out. He brought out his best, proving that, not all is lost when it comes to humanitarian acts by Malaysians. Tony Lian, who runs Food4U, an NGO that feeds the homeless and poor every week, said he was horrified when he saw the clip
He then traced the man after the video went viral and found him in the same area, not far away from the bank, after a search. He then housed him in one of the two small shelters that he operates for the poor. Saying sorry after hurling unfounded allegations with no basis whatsoever and commenting on matters that stings the hearts of individuals and communities have become a Malaysian culture recently. In politics, PAS has done this once too many times.
One that stands out was a blatant attempt to racialise the incident involving a 41-year-old Malay woman who rushed and tried to hug the Perak Sultan at an official function. The Islamic party’s Manjoi assemblyman Hafez Sabri almost immediately posted that a Chinese woman had breached at the Perak state-level National Day celebration. After it went viral and drew criticism for being racially charged, he apologised.
Hafez said his initial post, made based on early information, had wrongly identified the person involved. The post has since been deleted.
Some of the “damage first, apologise later” PAS booboos are:
1.'I'm sorry': Sanusi retracts defamatory remarks against Anwar in legal settlement
2 Kedah Pas assemblyman apologises for 'Gardenia bread' comment about Sabahans
3. PAS MAN Now Says Sorry To TERESA after Spreading Fake News
4. PAS man says sorry after calling on Allah to defend Kedah from enemies (VIDEO) | Malay Mail
5.PAS apologises for disrespecting Gerakan's Lau
6.PAS man says sorry, admits he was wrong in linking Yeoh to YTL | The Star
7.PAS rep says sorry to Syahredzan over claim MP not an honest Muslim
Of course, there are many others that went to the courts with PAS representatives losing the suits and apologising. One involved PAS MP Siti Mastura Muhammad who lost a defamation case brought by DAP leaders Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng and Teresa Kok over her claims linking them to the late Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng.
The High Court in Penang ordered Siti Mastura to pay a total of RM750,000 in damages to the DAP trio, specifically RM300,000 to Kit Siang, RM250,000 to Guan Eng and RM200,000 to Kok. The party then launched a crowd-funding attempt from party members to settle the payments.
Parkaran Kutty (parkarank@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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