IN response to the latest rambling by the Proklamasi Melayu chief advocate Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, two smart netizens have offered a brilliant psychological remedy that call on non-Malay netizens not to be emotional with the twice former premier’s racist rants no matter how offensive they are.
“Please don’t condemn Tun M but just wish him good health. What he wants is to create racial disharmony for his political gain,” shared netizen Chan Sia Hui in response to the elderly statesman’s contention that despite been given citizenship, “Chinese and Indian migrants” still prefer to retain their links and identification with their countries of origin.
“If non-Malays condemn him, the Malays will protect him and regard non-Malays as extreme. Then riot may occur. Tun M will become hero again. Tun M, I wish you good health, great that you still can contribute.”
For context’s sake, Dr Mahathir has in his latest social media rant even held the country’s founding father and first prime minister (PM) Tunku Abdul Rahman for not only having accepted the British condition to accord citizenship to the Chinese but “gave one million citizenships to the Chinese and Indians even if they were not qualified”.
“Despite this, the Constitution made it clear that in terms of language, customs and tradition the Federation of Malaya is a Malay country,” insisted Dr Mahathir while lamenting that unlike the Arabs, Indian Muslims and Pakistanis, the Chinese and Indians tend to “retain their own languages and cultures”.
“On Chinese national days, they even fly the Chinese national flags from their shop windows. They may speak some Malay but not as their mother tongue. Their pronunciation of Malay words is influenced by their original language,” observed the country’s longest serving premier of 22 years (first stint) and 22 months (second stint).
“The non-Muslim Indians were only interested in the politics of India. They did not want to be assimilated as Malays.”
Apart from Chan, fellow netizen Zee How Tai also cautioned that emotionally charged “nasty comments will only fuel more support” for him from Malay netizens who will eventually hail him as a hero.
“My suggestion to you is to pick a sensible comment with facts and figure from the other person and press “👍” or “❤”. Let that one comment triumph over the posting itself,” suggested the legal practitioner.
“Comment in intelligent, patience and soft manner, aiming at other readers from other race, not at him (Dr Mahathir) personally.”
Added Zee: “Snapshot and comment in your own profile or page. Use Bahasa Malaysia as frequent as you can to bridge everyone in Malaysia. I did in my page and most posting in this profile.” – Aug 1, 2023
