Ignorance or Pure Racism?

I realise and I admit that I am one of those bloggers who don't blog as much and thus was unaware that towards the end of last month, a blogger posted a very racist and seditious entry which upon reading enraged me.

The blog in question is, as most of you are aware of considering the coverage of Malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com.my) on this issue, is Life is a Drama. Well, I think the blogger's life literally turned into a drama after she posted that regrettable entry.

Before I move on, I would like to establish foremost that I am Indian by ethnicity but a Malaysia by heart. Therefore, do not be presumptuous as most people are and assume that my comments are going to be prejudicial as they are unraveled.

Section 3 (1) (e) of the Sedition Act 1948 of Malaysia clearly states the following:

3. (1) A “seditious tendency” is a tendency—

(e) to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia;

By law, the blogger should be apprehended and tried in the court of law as stipulated by the same Act under Section 4 (1). She should be prosecuted. You may think that I am iterating as such due to racial sentiments but I am not. And even if I did, it should not be seen as a criminality.

Malaysia is by and large a multiracial country. In spite of the fact that all the races have lived together for the past 60 odd years or so, the pinnacle of racial harmony and integration has yet to be reached. Thus, there is a fine line between racial harmony and dispute, whatever the degree may be.

I am not denying that the blogger posted an apology a few days after her posting and subsequently removed that particular entry, it does not change the fact that she had indeed posted a seditious and racial entry.

Not only did she describe the Indian community in a discriminatory fashion, she even opined Indonesians and even the ethnic Malays are of the similar trait.

Here are some of her seditious and racial remarks (comments made in brackets are mine):

(a) Indians are useless son of bitches! (Does the Indian community only consist of men?)

(b) I'm not trying to be racist but it's always INDIAN. It's INDIAN's fault. (If this is not being racist, than what is it? )

(c) I HATE INDIANS. It's bad enough they are famous for being drunk and rude (most of them anyway). Now, they carry the reputation of being stealer, robbers, rapist, idiots, morons, drunk bastards, and they list goes on... (Herein lies the blogger's ignorance. Indians are not famous for whatever the blogger had suggested. It is true that some Indians are as such but they are those who come from a rural background and a mal-educated background. The case is true also for all the other races. Those who are not well-educated and come from a rural background or a broken family, tend to associate themselves to such activities. Not all of them, but some of them. This is a fact. Not just Indians but also the Chinese, Malays and the other races)

There are several other remarks made by the blogger but I choose not to mention all of them for they all of the same. The point here is that she had made seditious remarks as seen under the lens of the Sedition Act.

It doesn't matter if she had posted it in the heat of the moment or from anger for the theft of her handphone (which would not have stolen hadn't she placed it on a table in plain sight). The fact remains that she did post such an entry.

The posting was filled with so much of anger and racist remarks, it could not have been a heat of the moment thing or even the influence of emotions as she (and as do we all) claimed. They had to come from a place within her where she'd repressed her racists tendencies.

But this event, which was regrettable and does shed bad light on the Indian community at large, triggered her to burst forth her suppressed emotions.

I would like to appeal to all you bloggers such as myself out there to make this blogger make a public apology for her insensitivity and racism.

I am utterly disgusted and appalled by her.

Lives in Jeopardy?

I commute almost daily to my college. And I dread it. Not only do I have to arise from my slumber before even the Moon had the chance to shy itself away to welcome the glorious Sun, I have to cram myself as it were with other bus commuters. And they dread this too.

The bus service in question is RapidKL and it has countless shortcomings. Too many that I cannot possibly fit it in just one posting. I will post periodically on the flaws of RapidKL as and when I can.

In this first posting, I would to dwell on the recklessness or should I say the complete disregard on the side of the driver for the safety of the passengers. One particular incident that occured a few months ago shocked me and my journalistic instinct compelled me to record this video.

As you have just watched, the driver was reading a Malaysian daily while driving on a busy road. Of course, in this particular video, it appears as if he quickly put the daily down in the process of driving. However, let me warn you. Do not be tricked! This was the third time he commited this offence.

The first time he did it, he read the newspaper for more than a minute while driving! Just imagine what could have happened at that moment should a motorcycle or a car overtook him out of the blue and he didn't see it coming?

It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that the driver's devil-may-care attitude could have endangered the lives of the passengers and his own life.

Therefore, I urge you commuters out there. If such a thing happens when you are commuting, record it and post it here. Let Malaysia see this and may this be an impetus for a better and safer ride.