From Martin Vengadesan
It’s Malaysia Day and I am glad that it’s a time of celebration and unity. But I wasn’t surprised to read Nikkei’s article about rising ethnic friction playing a role in Malaysian politics.
It revealed that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had issued 11,809 takedown requests for online “race, religion and royalty” content between 2022 and April 2025, resulting in the removal of 7,579 items.
Race-baiting and rage-baiting are on the rise in tandem. It is fuelled largely by the desperate narrative of a racially homogeneous opposition that is not afraid to jeopardise our country’s stability by pitting one group against another.
Nor is the opposition solely to blame because the youth leader of one government party also needs to take his share of responsibility for drumming up business in the hate trade.
Stage-managed overreactions are the norm. Online tirades and oblique threats of violence go hand in hand with acts of obfuscation and deliberate misdirection.
It is not even uncommon for an influencer to instigate an explosive situation and then come along offering their services to solve the problem they helped create.
Unfortunately, when you have a society raised on segregated political parties, education systems and even media languages, your populace is ripe for this sort of manipulation.
This year alone I have seen some friends and acquaintances whipped into a frenzy by stories about a temple, the appointment of our top judge, a mocking dance, socks and flags.
You name it there’s someone there peddling negative and hateful rhetoric. It’s often the usual suspects yet segments of the public get swept in.
I was horrified to see that some had no qualms telling blatant lies about the tragic Zara Qairina Mahathir case. Imagine having the gall and inhumanity to craft falsehoods to capitalise on the death of a young girl.
I find that the man on the street is not sufficiently educated on the science of politics, nor on media literacy and indeed on history itself.
Rather they trade in coffee-shop chat and shower thoughts rooted in identity politics and self-fulfilling prophecies of the anecdotal sort.
And unlike rocket science and brain surgery, when it comes to politics and media, every layman thinks he is an expert.
That’s why I have a friend who likes to lecture me, labouring under the delusion that he is an expert on politics, religion and media. He presumes to lecture me on geopolitics on the basis of knowledge gleaned from TikTok, Insta stories, conspiracy theories and right-wing Christian sites.
He has never voted, rarely travelled and hasn’t read many books. But his echo chamber makes him feel like he is now an authority. And that’s why he clings on desperately to implausible scenarios such as Donald Trump‘s messiah-like status.
The problem is that he allows hate and fear of the other to dominate his outlook. He insists that those of a different race and religion are out to get him, and he thinks and acts accordingly.
The late Khoo Kay Khim once told me that the true Malaysian is a lonely person, and he’s not wrong. If you find yourself looking hard at the big picture and trying to celebrate our differences instead of magnifying them – you might not have as much company as you’d like.
I do hope, on a day like today, that we can spend a little more time appreciating the good that we have, and building on it.
Martin Vengadesan is a former editor who currently serves as a strategic communications consultant to the communications ministry.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
