M.Krishnamoorthy
A media coach, adjunct professor and author
Politicians often manipulated racial and religious tension to grapple for power, according to a report by Pusat Komas titled “Malaysia Racism Report 2023”.
Incidents of racism and racial discrimination were most prevalent in politics.
It recorded a total of 50 incidents of racism and racial discrimination, of which 15, or 31.4%, involved politics, adding that they would also seek to instil fear within their communities.
Other reported incidents fell into the categories of education (9.8%), sports (7.8%), government policies (7.8%), other sectors, including health (13.7%), provocation or incitement (17.6%), and xenophobia (11.8%).
Komas programme director Ryan Chua said racism among politicians still exists, citing recent debates regarding vernacular schools and bak kut teh being recognised as a national heritage dish.
“Fear mongering is a strategy used by politicians – by making false statements and creating false narratives against the opposing party (including) by claiming that the opposition’s victory could be disastrous to the community they serve.
“Bak kut teh (a soupy Chinese dish with meat) became a big issue in Parliament. Even vernacular schools became an issue. It (a vernacular school) is a language-based school, but it was used as political ammunition,” Chua said.
The report cited speeches and remarks by several political leaders in 2023, including PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
FMT reported that this included Mahathir’s claim that the Malays do not benefit from Malaysia’s multi-ethnicity, with the Chinese community dominating the business sector and Hadi's warning against political power falling to non-Malays.
Several recorded incidents in the education sector include barring students from wearing traditional clothing such as sarees, Chua said.
He also cited reports of an incident where a teacher encouraged a student to embrace Islam to improve his chances of joining the national football team.
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, adjunct professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns.
M. Krishnamoorthy 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!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
