ACCORDING to the Cambridge Dictionary, the phrase “taking the law into your own hands” is to do something illegal and often violent in order to punish someone because you know the law will not punish that person.
This is precisely what has happened when several influencers acting under the banner of anti-refugee campaigner Fhairul Fizzy’s “Skuad Langar” decided that brute force is the best way to keep the country’s PATI (illegal immigrant) menace at bay.
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Fhairul’s Instagram clip shows the gang of unauthorised enforcement thugs berating a roadside betel leaf trader by yelling at him to get lost but not before kicking his stall onto the street and emptying his vegetables into a bin.
Note that the trader had not put up any resistance and was in the midst of packing up to leave as instructed.
Editor’s Note: Fhairul Fizzy (who uses the social media handle @fhairul.fizzy.fuyyo) is an active anti-Rohingya and anti-PATI influencer and activist in Malaysia. He has gained notoriety for his often violent and aggressive approach in confronting PATIs.
This act of vigilantism has drawn its share of supporters given public perception of poor enforcement from the relevant authorities which has fed into this rising tide of anti-Rohingya sentiment.
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Frustrations with the powers that be was evident in a post on Threads by Aisyah Sofea (@aisyah._sofea) who voiced that such excessive shows of force were necessary to deal with this stubborn illegal immigrant scourge.
Street gangsterism
Arguing that these PATIs were getting bolder and needed to be sent a clear message, she proclaimed satisfaction watching the clip of the vegetable trader getting his wares kicked onto the street.
Her post has generated 16.2K likes, 10.4K comments, 2.9K re-posts and 8.6K shares at the time of writing, a denotation that not only is this a hot topic but one in which public frustration seems to have boiled over into excusing such vigilantism.
Plenty of comments reflected the angry mood among many Malaysians who feel that their country is being overrun by foreign invaders and that the authorities are doing nothing or very little about it.
One even advocated violence towards “filthy sirih (bettlenut) chewers who spat everywhere”.
Thankfully, there are many Malaysians who do NOT agree with this show of brute force from a bunch of unauthorised bullies.
Arguing that Malaysia has its laws and such taking matters into one’s own hands is not to be encouraged, Threader JitKina_JKC (@jit_judge) was of the opinion that such content only brought shame to the country and increased communal tensions.
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Such pleas to be reasonable were reflected in various comments that condemned the overboard actions of the influencer.
‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’ was the message from F&B (food & beverage) innovator Datuk Azman Abdul Razak (@dato.azman) who argued that even if an undocumented alien has flouted the law, that does not necessarily mean that they should be subjected to coarse, embarrassing and humiliating actions.
More pertinently, this forceful action against illegal PATI traders by the gang of influencers has only made things more difficult for other anti-refugee activists, argued another Threader.
Stressing that he, too, was angry over the Rohingya issue, non-partisan dibsuki (@dibsuki) claimed that he drew the line at kicking at food items on a table.
“It is precisely because of you that give those voicing out on this issue a bad name,” he argued, referring to Fhairul in his original Instagram clip.
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Asserting that not only do activists have to contend with enforcement agencies with double standards, such ugly incidents only serve to undermine their efforts in combating the issue at hand.
Underlining that he was NOT a Rohingya sympathiser, he stressed that the good name of other activists must be maintained to allow them to continue voicing their displeasure at the state of affairs.
Public sentiment may be at tipping point or indeed already boiled over from the perceived lax enforcement against PATIs and their illegal business activities. However, that does NOT in any way justify violent vigilantism in any shape or form.
This was best summed up by a gentle reminder from this pious commenter to behave in an appropriate manner at all times to safeguard the Malay Muslim image.
“Don’t behave like we’re uncivilised and not guided by religion because we’re overcome with anger,” he wisely counselled. Wise words at a very over-heated time which should be heeded, especially by hot-headed content creators. – Sept 25, 2026
Main image credit: JitKina_JKC (@jit_judge)/Threads
