KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said today that a video where Malaysians stood up for other races and rejected racist remarks was a “good sign”, but offered a cautious view of the extent it reflected the realities on the ground.

Zaid, who has watched the short video clip titled “Are Malaysians racist?” said he needed “more proof” before he could “feel comfortable about the future of the country”.

“It’s a good sign, but you can’t make a judgement about society based on one sampling,” the former de facto law minister told Malay Mail Online when met at the court complex here.

In the making of the viral Malaysia Day video which was given to Malay Mail Online, advertising agency Naga DDB had interviewed 55 Malaysians — with all of them defending other races from unfair and racist stereotypes.

Earlier today, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin played down the message of the video of a social experiment that showed Malaysians refusing to utter racist remarks in exchange for money, saying that it may not be “the most effective way to find out about racism”.

The Umno Youth chief, who was aware of the video but had yet to watch it, 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.

The Malay Mail Online (MMO) video titled “Are Malaysians racist?” ― which features Malaysians of various ethnic groups being told to repeat derogatory statements like “Malays are stupid”, “the Chinese are pendatang” (immigrants) and “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.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim speaks at an interview at his home in Petaling Jaya on February 17, 2014. The former Umno minister said had watched the short video clip titled ‘Are Malaysians racist?’ but says he needs ‘more proof’ before he could ‘feel comfortable about the future of the country’. — Picture by Saw Siow Feng

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

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

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 heart-warming”.

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.

Comments by hundreds of Internet users appeared to echo the same sentiment that Malaysians were not surprised that their fellow countrymen had stood up for them, regardless of their racial differences.