Letter to editor
THE Cambridge Dictionary defines to “tar everyone with the same brush” as to unfairly judge a whole group of people. You assume that everyone in that group shares the same bad traits or mistakes of just a few.
With the current climate of race relations in the country at an all-time low, sweeping generalisations are aplenty, especially on social media where such views percolate before appearing as a heady brew of bigotry, self-righteousness and victimisation.
A fine example of anti-Korean sentiment was found on posts by a couple of Threaders.
One recounted the horrors of working under a Korean supervisor who would apparently “yell at subordinates till the whole building could hear”.
The toxic work environment has made Anna Shamsul (@anna_shamsul) less-than-enamoured when she hears others praise K-dramas as being best in class.
This all-too-familiar case of tyrannical bosses was seized upon by Nbllaeid (@nbllaeid) as proof of expats behaving badly in foreign lands or more specifically in the Korean-heavy enclave of Mont Kiara.
“Learn to behave when you are mere guests in another country” was her pointed message.
Editor’s Note: @anna_shamsul must have second thought on the content of her post for reason she knew best as she has since taken down/deleted her post.
‘No intention to spread hatred’
It would appear that she was quite possibly referring to this episode highlighted by Mont Kiara resident Natasya Hisam (@badzriatul) who apparently had become so accustomed to incidents of casual racism from her Korean neighbours such as pulling their kids away from her as if she was a leper so much so that she had become immune to it.
But the incident that broke the camel’s back was apparently being assaulted with a phone for simply trying to press a lift button.
“Is it because I’m a Malay wearing a hijab?” she queried defensively before dropping the loaded statement “the fact that I am even asking this in a Muslim-majority country is crazy.”
Editor’s Note: Like @anna_shamsul, @badzriatul had also removed her post given “my limit was crossed when my privacy started being breached, including by politicians and TikTok creators”.
“I also won’t be sharing any evidence or footage publicly as advised by a lawyer. There were many who took the situation the wrong way hence I don’t want anything I share to be used to trigger or fuel hatred towards any group,” she reasoned.
“At the same time, I’ve been attacked for “not doing enough”, for how I reacted and even told that my experience doesn’t make sense.”
Few things to note about the missives above.
Firstly, despite being done in good faith or based on real life experience, such posts smack of an attempt to normalise racist attitudes, thinking and behaviour.
It’s not the Koreans’ (alleged) misbehaviour but rather the incessant playing of the victim card that allows them to retaliate or at least verbalise their contempt that is the emerging pattern here.
Faulting minority as ungrateful
By placing their situations in scenarios other Malaysians are likely to resonate with, they hope to gather support for such a view.
More insidiously, such narrative seeks to equate certain behaviour among foreigners – be it Rohingyas, Mainland Chineseor even Koreans – as unacceptable.
This is before lumping other Malaysian races alongside as equally guilty of ungracious behaviour towards their ever courteous and patient Malay host. Where have we heard this story before?
Secondly, as for tarring everybody with the same brush – anyone who has worked in the corporate sector long enough will have their fair share of horror stories of about evil bosses.
Just because one happens to be Korean should not be made an excuse to tarnish the reputation of an entire community.
Last but not least, it was notable that a Korean expat reached out to be of assistance, requesting for CCTV footage of the alleged lift assault.
This would allow her to shame the so-called handphone abuser by publicly shaming him/her among the Korean community here to prevent future incidents.
If indeed the original poster was so angered by this incident, she would be monitoring this post and would have responded to this suggestion. The fact that she has not (Editor’s Note: but instead deleted her post) speaks volumes that this is nothing but content designed with mischief in mind.
As this Korean expat Threader quite rightly declared if the assailant did indeed attack the poor lady just because she wore a hijab, this did not mean that person was “anti-Muslim but was very possibly just crazy”. – Aug 26, 2026
Son of Heung-Min
Muar, Johor
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
