JUNE 10 — ON Friday, Malay Mail reported that two racist banners were found hanging outside a train station in Kg Dato Haron, Petaling Jaya. Later that day, we were alerted to similar banners found in Pandamaran, Klang — and it is understood they could be in Padang Jawa and Shah Alam as well.
The yellow banners featured the crossed out faces of DAP’s Damansara MP Tony Pua and Human Rights Party Malaysia’s president P. Uthayakumar.
They came complete with many kinds of racial and religious slurs in Malay.
These included: “Immigrants don’t overstep the line!! Don’t play with fire”, “Islam is the official religion of Malaysia!! Infidels don’t forget yourself”, “Don’t take Malay rulers lightly. Long live the king!”, “Hindraf, don’t be rude!! Don’t question the right of Malay superiority!”, and “Tanah Melayu is owned by the Malays, British agreement 1957.”
By the end of the day, the police announced that at least two suspects have been arrested and the case is being investigated under the Sedition Act.
But why were the two targeted? Who knows, but it could be as simple as one being an ethnic Chinese, and the other ethnic Indian. Uthayakumar may have recently caused anger after he suggested Universiti Teknologi MARA be opened to all Malaysians regardless of race, but Pua has done nothing but rolled up his sleeves and toiled at the Ministry of Finance.
The banners also had the image Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Muhammad V, as if to say that the provocative messages were a way for the authors to show their allegiance and loyalty to the King.
But did the Agong ever consent to his face being associated with such juvenile, incendiary, and bigoted statements? Was he happy about being co-opted into racist acts?
He would be utterly displeased to be linked as such. Although he has not spoken up about this, we know the Agong surely does not subscribe to these vile sentiments.
In a recent statement issued by the comptroller of the royal household Wan Ahmad Dahlan Ab Aziz over the appointment of Tommy Thomas as the Attorney General (AG), His Majesty had called for all Malaysians to accept that the appointment and not raise a racial or religious conflict over the matter.
Malaysians have to be treated justly regardless of race and religion, he said.
And yet Malays still wrongly think that the Agong belongs solely to them. That the Agong is a defender of just the Malays, in a war against the others -- when in fact he is the Head of State.
Malay supremacists Perkasa had last week “sternly warned” Malaysians against insulting the Rulers or it will “act aggressively.”
“Don’t disturb the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Over our dead bodies!” its Islamic affairs bureau chief Amini Amir Abdullah warned.
Malaysia is at peace. We have never been so united, after we brought down a regime that has ruled for six decades.
But this peace may not last long if we allow reactionaries and racial provocateurs to instigate unrest in the country, with fatalistic sentiments over the Rulers.
For example, popular quasi-nationalist site The Patriots had last week dug up its old post on the East Sumatra Social Revolution, which turned 72 on March 3 this year.
The revolution saw many sultanates there — who were seen as allies to the Dutch colonials — overthrown, and the murder of many aristocrats. Their wealth was then seized to fund the Indonesian independence campaign.
The page said last week that linking the wealth of the kings with public funds was a “propaganda” meant to stir hate against the monarchy — a not-so-obvious dig at veteran newsman A. Kadir Jasin’s unverified allegation that RM257 million has been spent on the Agong since January last year.
The same page also wrote about the fall of the Islamic Ottoman Caliphate — appended with a note calling Malaysians to not let their ancestors’ “martyrdom” to go to waste, and to take the history of the deposed Abdul Hamid II, the last sultan of the Ottomans, as a lesson.
Another vitriolic post against “liberals and feminists” had also referred to the fall of the Caliphate to justify the writer’s allegations of an attack against the majority Malays, and their “special position.”
This subversive content is sinister — it is aimed at fear-mongering, and sowing hate against non-Malays by suggesting a situation that is far too unlikely to happen.
Why talk about violence, when Malaysians have proven themselves that a regime change could happen through the ballots, and smoothly enough?
Why talk about violence, when the freedom of speech accorded by the government has more than anything proven that discourse and debate can happen with civility?
If anything, the violence that we have had in our history has always been towards the minorities — rarely the status quo.
The assent towards Tommy Thomas’ nomination has proven one thing: that we have a working democracy and a constitutional monarchy system. The prime minister had made his suggestion, and the Agong had accepted it, as is his place.
We should expect the same working relationship in the future: that any abolishment of cruel and unjust laws, especially against the minorities, would get the assent of the constitutional monarch.
The Agong had consented to Thomas, understanding full well the need for reform and rule of law, and empathising with the Malaysians’ overwhelming will for a country that is clean, inclusive, and one that they can be proud of.
Ahead of Thomas’ appointment, we had seen zealous calls that the AG must be a Malay-Muslim, allegedly in order to protect the interests and benefits of the majority. With his decision, the Agong has swiftly shut down such rhetoric — most of the zealots had fallen in line to pledge fealty afterwards.
The Agong’s action is showing that he is on the side of reform, and we must not let racial and religious prejudices take over. We must not let the Agong be associated with such bigotry and hate. We must bury the notion that to discriminate is equal to loyalty to the King.
As Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad reportedly said in Malay daily Sinar Harian, as citizens we have a task over the monarchy: “I believe that if the monarchs do something that is wrong, we should take action to save them.”
“We must take care. Rulers should not be involved in things that the people dislike. The people have no power but when they are angry, they will rebel,” he was quoted saying.
Our task now is simple: Keep the Agong away from the racists, the zealots, the instigators — and the latter will get starved to death.
