OCTOBER 21 — The shocking videos depicting the aggression of the so-called Red Shirts received a vocal response from various sections of the rakyat. 

Whether one is conservative, liberal, pro- or anti-government, the extent of the Red Shirt violence was simply unacceptable. 

The rakyat is quickly growing tired of the Red Shirts’ antics and so any plan they have of tarnishing Bersih may ironically backfire. 

Red Shirts leader Jamal Yunos is also notorious for his defence of the "Cina gila babi” remark hurled at a reporter last year. Apparently, he explained, it was merely a reference to the fact that Chinese consume pork.

This reasoning is a total logical failure. Jamal purposely "forgot” the word "babi” as a pejorative. But this is the level of racism which has come to be acceptable in our nation. 

There are a number of factors which have led us here. I would think the most major factor is the fact that we have been ruled by a racially segmented (but not necessarily divided) coalition — Barisan Nasional — for Malaysia’s entire existence of almost 60 years. 

We have been indoctrinated with idea — from our earliest school-going years — that the ruling coalition is our best representation. In other words, we need our own ethnic group to fight for our rights. 

A corollary of this must be that people of other ethnicities cannot be trusted to uphold our rights. With such "subtle” programming, it is no wonder that our children have hidden seeds of suspicion in their minds. It does not occur to them that in most of developed nations, parliamentary representation is usually by people from different races.

A lesser known factor behind the existence of racist extremists like the Red Shirts is casual racism. Readers may disagree with me, claiming that casual racism is part of the Malaysian DNA. 

I grew up with such casual jibes myself, my own roots provoking jokes albeit non-malicious ones. I do not believe that they are directly responsible but rather that they plant seeds of racism in us. Add a dose of Umno politics and you will have a full blown racist!

Racism is also casually strewn about in our TV shows. A favourite TV show of mine from the mid-nineties was the famous Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu which depicts scenes from a Kampung Seri Wangi (later Flat Seri Wangi). 

There is a Malay majority cast which consists of an older generation (Pak Busu, Pak Uda and Mak Usu) and a younger one (Budin, Mat Deris, Wan Ismail Golok) as well as an Indian (Ravi) and a Chinese (Lucy). 

While there is no overt racism in the show — the Malays treat Ravi and Lucy as one of their own with the older generation even acting like are their parents — there are certain references which do plant those seeds. 

Ravi’s dark skin for example is often made the butt of jokes. Lucy’s Chinese accent, which was quite minimal, was exaggerated to depict the Chinese inability to speak proper Malay. I did not realise it then but these are very offensive elements.

Can we afford to be lax about these matters? Perhaps if we did not have political opportunists who were waiting at every turn to exploit our situation to their advantage. Perhaps then we can make racially charged jokes without fearing the repercussions. 

As it stands, we have people waiting for any opportunity to cry, "Ini penghinaan terhadap mariah Melayu” (this is an insult to Malay dignity and honour) and call for action while totally forgetting the blatant corruption which exists in our country. 

That, ironically, does not seem to insult them at all. It is therefore best for us to keep even seemingly harmless, casual racism to a minimum.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.