On one side, the online public outrage has caused police to caution against the threat to public order in Klang.
For an idea of the Malay angry reaction, see Agenda Daily news report below.
On the opposite Bangsa Malaysia side, there was a deluge of disbelief.
In my earlier blog post, I observed how an overwhelming number of Malaysiakini readers had commented that the story smelled “fishy” to them.
The majority portal subscribers said they did not believe that the bodyguards were really beaten for fasting, and describing the alleged incident as “weird”, “funny”, “strange”, not making sense nor adding up.
In their followup, Malaysiakini published a Bernama report where the Selangor police chief expanded on what his investigators have discovered thus far.
This subsequent Malaysiakini article did not draw as many responses as its previous breaking news but those readers who did comment again chose to double down on their initial scepticism.
I’ve noted that Malaysians are living in two separate, parallel worlds.
There is one set of public information available regarding the incident. The bodyguards have told their story and police remanded the employer who allegedly beat the two men.
Nonetheless, when exposed to this same data, Malays who had read/ listened / viewed the news item interpreted the incident one way whereas the Bangsa Malaysians interpreted it rather differently.
BELOW: YellowGiraffe6192 commented in Malaysiakini — “They’re all guilty of something. Not as simple as the ‘beaten for fasting’ allegation”
No unity in diversity
So which of the two sides is more attuned to reality?
In the green corner, the Malay audience immediately guessed that the accused employer is Chinese.
News outlets, however, generally blacked out the detail of his ethnicity.
In the yellow (Bersih colour) corner, the Bangsa Malaysia crowd fiercely regurgitate their groupthink dictating that there are no Malays, no Indians either and “zero Chinese“. All of us are Malaysians.
Therefore the assault in Klang is seen by these Bangsa Malaysians as a purely personal dispute between a Malaysian boss and his disgruntled Malaysian employees.
They pretend to be colour blind to the race of both affected parties.
The Bangsa Malaysians also don’t believe the bodyguards’ account of events insofar as the given ‘fasting’ motive is concerned.
BELOW: Poster tweeted by @hannahyeoh … even butter wouldn’t melt on their sugared, pink-icing tongue
Bangsa Malaysians exalt bulan puasa, konon
Naysayers who reject the assault narrative by the two bodyguards refuse to believe that a Muslim can be beaten for fasting. Because in their Bangsa cloud cuckooland, everybody loves Ramadan.
In the eyes of the multikulti borg collective, the ‘Salam Ramadan’ greetings widely signaled on social media by DAP evangelists proves how impossible it is for a non-Malay employer to be hostile to his Muslim employees fasting.
Bangsa Malaysians point to their evangelist icons like the DAP members of parliament – YB Hannah Yeoh and YB Ong Kian Ming – who keep the Muslims company during bulan puasa.
Malaysia Post had an exclusive interview only just a few days ago (below) headlined ‘Hannah seronok, tak letih jalani puasa’, so there!
DAP feels insulted to be linked to Chinese chauvinists
In an editorial yesterday, Sin Chew quoted DAP’s Tony Pua as saying MCA had “Chineseness-ed” themselves into oblivion (unlike Bangsa Malaysian DAP which is today the biggest party in Dewan Rakyat).
Tony and Hannah had recently slammed their colleague Ronnie Liu as a “Chinese chauvinist”.
Tony ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ Pua also asserted that such a Chineseness strategy would set the multiracial party back for decades and was “perhaps the biggest insult one could throw at DAP”, according to the Sin Chew editorial.
The Chinese-language newspaper takes Tony to mean that it is essential for DAP to “de-Chinese” itself in order to fish more Malay votes.
Sin Chew drew a conclusion from Tony Pua’s press statement that “defending Chineseness constitutes the biggest insult for DAP”.
To stay in power through an expanded non-Chinese voter base, DAP has created its Bangsa bubble where their de-Chinese doublespeak extols a solidarity for puasa, tudung-wearing (DAP’s Chinese Selangor Aduns, pix above) and other Muslim practices.
Next, the DAP evangelists will be telling their Dapsters to say they’re all not drinking or eating pork from now until Raya (sarcasm, in case anybody misses the point).
Which is another reason why the Bangsa Malaysians remain sceptical that the beaten bodyguards are telling the whole truth — because, you see, it is simply impossible for any Beyond-Race Malaysian boss to be antagonistic to puasa.
Helen Ang 