MOST Malaysians will by now be cognisant of the local Chinese custom of avoiding the digit “4”, especially in house unit numbers and even floor numbers in high rise buildings.
This was picked up by rightist influencer Randuk 3.0 in a barbed post aimed squarely at the local Chinese community.
Noting how many Chinese developers and residents have a habit of omitting the digit ‘4’ by changing a ‘4’ to a ‘3A’ and so forth, he pointedly asked if he could do the same to his own address by including Jawi script.
Tagging DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook for good measure, the nationalist made no bones as what he saw as a lack of assimilation by the Chinese who still insisted on “changing name of streets, putting Chinese in large script on business signs while turning their back on the national language.”
Insisting that having such views were NOT xenophobic but yet implicitly lumping three groups together as non-Malaysian. he claimed that “there isn’t a single word mentioning the term Chinese, Indian, Rohingya in the Federal Constitution.”
In the case of Negeri Sembilan which explains Anthony Loke’s tagging, the poster was also against names such as Port Dickson and Jalan Chen Mian Hin; the preference was for Pantai Dermaga for the former while the latter should be called Jalan Temiang for more local-sounding names to places.
“The Malaysian identity is based on the identity of the indigenous people of this country, namely the Malays, Orang Asli and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak,” he passionately argued.
The insinuation was clear. But in case anyone did not get his message, he shouted: “If you really want a Chinese identity, go back to China”.
The race-baiting post has generated 2.7K likes, 464 comments and 141 shares at time of publication, denoting there are those who view anything remotely Chinese as threatening, chauvinistic and unwelcome.
The poster also did not forget to add a caricature portraying a DAP supporter as a typical practitioner of this address-changing malaise that so infuriates postal workers.
More than one queried why the Chinese in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan do not seem to be particularly bothered by the No. 4.
One commenter sarcastically queried if these superstitious Chinese developers skipped the ‘4s’ when counting their money. Another pointed out that such “strange behaviour” would be stamped out by the ruling Communist Party in China.
Many commenters with a rightist slant also saw the opportunity to poke fun at the Chinese community and its superstitions. One comedian asked if a fourth child in family was identified as “Kid 3A” in school.
Others wondered if school syllabi, too, would have to be altered – “after 3, 3A or after 13, 13A … let the whole world knows we’re anti No. 4”.
Needless to say, some saw fit to unleash their prejudices in the comments section.
A few tried to counter the racist tirade by stating that it was the home/business owners’ right to change the unit number.
Needless to say, their voices were quickly drowned out in a sea of acrimony.
While it is not wrong to point out that addresses cannot be changed on a whimsy, it must be noted how shrill some protests become as elections near.
Any form of Chinese culture or custom that can be painted as “alien”, “foreign” or “un-Malaysian” is ripe for picking by the rightist or self-proclaimed “majority” demographic.
This is the current state of the nation and temperatures are rising where even numeric can become an identity crisis. – July 6, 2026
