Letter to Editor
DAMNED if you do, damned if you don’t.
That seems to be the scenario facing local Chinese in Malaysia. When they stay silent, they are accused as being unsympathetic towards the plight of Palestinians.
When they do choose to openly support, they are said to have udang di sebalik batu (ulterior motives) for doing so, most notably seizing an opportunity to make profit.
This constant negative portrayal of the Chinese community is a very concerning development.
Malaysians are used to hearing the old Cina komunis jibe but things have recently been turned up a notch or two with the Gaza conflict weaponised to suit local agendas.
This can be clearly illustrated by the number of social media posts that attempt to equate the Chinese here as Zionists.
One such example is a Facebook post by PN Lols which purportedly shows a Chinese male hugging a pillow with an Israeli flag cover at home but proudly displaying Palestinian colours at his business venue.
The post captioned the meme as “bendera tembikai auto halal” (Palestinian flag automatically denotes halal status), an insinuation that the support towards Palestinian cause is insincere and only done for the business to prosper.
Even more alarming was the sheer number of comments that agree with this twisted propaganda (the post has garnered 11K likes, 2,1K comments and 1K shares at the time of writing).
There were a few that tried to be the voice of reason but were quickly drowned out by the bigot brigade.
Thankfully, one commenter sought to differentiate between local Chinese and those who are from Mainland China by stating that it is the latter who are not properly assimilated. In his view, there are local Chinese who were truly patriotic.
But that observation, too, was dismissed with dissenters claiming that the majority of local Chinese were “big headed”.
Dangerous rhetoric
It is highly disconcerting that the Israel-Hamas conflict is being used as a stick to beat the non-Malays in the country.
It is one thing to accuse this demographic as being unsupportive by being silent. But it is quite another to accuse the so-called “Type C citizens” as being anti-Muslims and pro-Zionists.
This is dangerous rhetoric that the Madani administration must curtail lest it is seen as powerless to defend the dignity and rights of minority groups.
No point in championing a multi-racial Malaysia when it allows such dangerous slander, defamation and character assassination to continue unchecked.
Would the powers-that-be acquiesce to non-Malays taking a similar stance and start hurling accusations that all Malays are terrorists?
Thought not.
But then again, this is a nation that allows the likes of celebrity preachers in the likes of Firdaus Wong, Zamri Vinoth and Zakir Naik to make all sorts of inflammatory remarks as they see fit without fear of censure.
It is no surprise that certain segments of the rakyat feel emboldened to do the same. If we don’t shift away from this mindset, we are definitely going backwards into the dark ages.
Whether one wants to throw his or her weight behind the concepts of “Tanah Melayu” or “Malaysian Malaysia” is immaterial. Race-baiting as above is outmoded and contrary to nation-building. – Oct 9, 2025
Anti-Zionist Malaysian
Seberang Prai
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
