REGARDLESS if he is making a rightist, populist statement or otherwise, Siti Kasim has hit out at Pejuang president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir for his blatant argument which admonished “all Americans” for the so-called sins of their government.
This is because simply declaring “I hate Americans, all of them” without holding Washington or the Donald Trump administration accountable for their actions is not a principled criticism but a sweeping prejudice, according to the human rights activist and lawyer.
“I completely disagree with Mukhriz that ordinary Americans should share responsibility for their government’s actions,” the Orang Asli advocate ranted on her Facebook page.
You want to condemn the US government for its policies? Go ahead. You want to condemn Washington’s support for Israel and what has happened to Palestinians in Gaza? By all means.
But there’re more than 300 million American citizens. They’re not one political organism with one opinion.
There are Americans who support Israel, Americans who oppose Israel’s actions, Americans who’ve marched for Palestine or Americans who’ve been arrested protesting for Palestine.
Likewise, there’re Jewish Americans who oppose the Israeli government’s policies, Muslim Americans, Palestinian Americans, academics, students, journalists and ordinary citizens who have spent years challenging their own government’s foreign policy.
Simplistic, populist discourse
Turning the table around, Siti Kasim wondered how Mukhriz’s statement “can be intellectually defensible” if someone claimed to” hate all Malaysians because of what their government did” or “hate all Muslims because of what governments in Muslim-majority countries did”.
We would quite rightly call it bigotry. So why should collective hatred suddenly become acceptable merely because the target is American?
This is precisely the mentality we should be fighting: judging millions of human beings collectively because of the actions of governments, politicians or institutions.
And the argument that ordinary Americans are responsible because they elect their government is particularly simplistic.
By that logic, every Malaysian is personally responsible for every decision made by every Malaysian government they have ever lived under.
In ridiculing the youngest of four children of twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he can actually” condemn governments without de-humanising their citizens”, Siti Kasim stressed the need for a multi-faith society like Malaysia to have principled leaders.
Malaysia needs leaders capable of distinguishing between a government and its people, foreign policy and nationality, accountability and hatred.
Since Mukhriz has introduced the language of “hate” into political discourse, for the record, I hate politicians like him.
Not because of his race. Not because of his religion. Not because of who his father is. And certainly not because I believe an entire group of people should be hated collectively.
I hate the kind of politics he represents – politics that takes complicated international conflicts and reduces them to crude slogans and sweeping hatred.
And most of all, I hate politicians who should know better but choose populism because it is easier to shout “I hate all of them” than to make an intelligent argument.”– Aug 26, 2026
