THE perils of free speech?
Giving a defiant middle finger (figuratively, not literally) to all her critics, Prof Sohehah Yaacob has doubled down on her claims despite widespread ridicule and criticism, including from her employer’s staff association.
The International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) linguistic thoughts expert has insisted that her latest hypothesis that the Romans learned valuable maritime know-how from ancient Malay civilisation is founded in academic research and is not a figment of her imagination.
Among her many critics include renowned political commenter Prof James Chin whose most dreaded prophecy that followers of the Arabic language senior academician would eventually come out in droves to defend her by playing racial/religious card – ie by claiming the kafir a.k.a. infidels are jealous of her – is slowly crystallising.
Inevitably, the ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) syndrome is showing as non-Malays would ultimately be accused of being overly worried of the knowledge prowess of Malays.
Avid fan base
Starved of examples of Malay greatness in contrast to the Chinese and Indian/Hindu civilisations which are historically-acclaimed as “the world’s oldest continuous civilisations”, it is understandable how tales of lost golden Malay empire buried in the annals of time is eagerly consumed by this demographic.
An example of this can be gleaned from the many comments defending Prof Solehah’s controversial opinion on the Facebook page of current affairs portal DemiRakyat Channel.
The infamous scholar has apparently defended her hypothesis as based on academic thought and not mere tall tales as critics make it out to be. The post which has since generated 4,.5K likes, 1.9K comments and 288 shares at time of writing indicates that – like it or not – the good professor has her avid followers.
Apparently, many fervent believers were gung-ho in their support of the deemed IIUM’s most famous lecturer for daring to speak the truth.
One commenter even chided keyboard warriors who criticised sans research or knowledge unlike the learned professor who has obliviously done due diligence.
Dubbing her a “fighter”, one rabid follower dismissed her critics as believers of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
It is unclear how that theory has “been proven false with DNA comparison evidence” but is perhaps reflective of this demographic’s haphazard treatment of empirical evidence.
Of course, the racist narrative is never far from the surface with plenty of commenters willing and proudly showing their colours. The criticism is based on “kafir envy” and “ill-feeling” towards the Malays.
It was also argued that the widespread condemnation was because Prof Solehah’s theories did not fit with the accepted Western-scripted narrative.
One commenter claimed it was understandable that the academic is ridiculed by non-Malays but is shocked that many Malays follow suit by labelling her all sorts of names.
Taking it a step further, one commenter even suggested that Prof Solehah be put in charge of revising the national history syllabus which hitherto been scripted by “foreigners”.
Making her out to be like some sort of crusader, many avid fans wished her strength and goodwill to continue uncovering the truth of the lost golden Malay civilisation.
As can be seen, many commenters were quite comfortable hurling terms such as kafir and bangsa pendatang (immigrants) indicating the sort of demographic many followers of this historical revisionist belong to.
As predicted by Chin who is the inaugural director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, those who dare challenge this narrative would be labelled “anti-Malay, anti-Islam – or worse – a tool of colonial erasure”.
This is the double-edged sword that is freedom of speech. Sometimes such opinions are the price to pay. – Nov 12, 2025
Main image credit: TV AlHijrah TV/YouTube
