KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin played down the message of a video of a social experiment that showed Malaysians refusing to utter racist remarks in exchange for money, saying today it is not indicative of the reality.

The Umno Youth chief said the public is unlikely to utter racist remarks when they are faced with the camera. In actual fact, the people at the “audition” were not aware the camera was actually rolling.

“It’s a good effort, but when the camera is stuck to your face, I don’t know who will want to say the wrong things about other people.

“Perhaps it’s not the most effective way to find out about racism,” Khairy told reporters after his ministry’s event here.

However, Khairy admitted he had not seen the video himself yet, although he was aware of its buzz after it went viral yesterday.

The Malay Mail Online (MMO) video titled “Are Malaysians racist?” ― which features Malaysians of various ethnic groups being told to repeat derogatory statements like the “Malays are stupid”, “the Chinese are pendatang” (immigrants) and the “Indians are smelly” ― went viral the moment it was uploaded at noon yesterday.

As of 8.45am today, less than 21 hours after its debut, the five-and-a-half minute clip was shared nearly 50,000 times on Facebook and received more than 200,000 combined views on video-sharing site YouTube and MMO’s internal JW video player.

It was the second-most watched video on YouTube in Malaysia.

Former Umno minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah had said yesterday the video showcased the true Malaysian identity, which is not being racist.

Khairy said perhaps it’s not the most effective way to find out about racism. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Like Saifuddin, others who have watched the video, which was shot by advertising agency Naga DDB and given to Malay Mail Online, said it gave them hope for a future. Some said they were reduced to tears.

Media Umno Malaysia and Friends of BN - Barisan Nasional also shared the video on their Facebook pages, with the latter saying: “This video is very heartwarming”.

Several Pakatan Rakyat politicians and activists like Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir have similarly shared the video on social media, saying it showed that Malaysians are generally decent and that there are non-racist people out there.

Her words and Saifuddin’s, along with hundreds of other comments by Internet users, appeared to echo the same sentiment ― Malaysians were not surprised that their fellow countrymen had stood up for them, regardless their racial differences.