Up to now, it’s reported that a few suspects had been arrested for allegedly spreading rumors of race riots in Johor.
The text messages, which reportedly have been circulating for several days, said majority ethnic Malays and minority ethnic Indians had fought in two Johor towns – Danga Bay and Kota Masai, and that rioting would break on the 50th Independence Day itself.
The riot rumors sounds so real that a contact in Singapore said some of the Singaporeans are quite worried about the "possible riot", although it turns out to be baseless as no riots were reported on Friday.
Indeed, last Thursday, which is the night before the independence day, I received a similar SMS from an unknown number. I called asking for the source and when I told him that’s not true, he somehow reminded me to treat the message with cautious.
I asked why. He explained with a few reasons which sound racist and I don’t intend to reveal the content in this blog. I didn’t even thank him but before I ended the call, I did ask him to stop forwarding the SMS only for the benefit of mobile operators.
And that indeed makes me ponder. 50 years of independence, is the trust level among Malaysia’s multi-racial people so low for some of us to almost be fooled that these rumors are true or are they to believe that riot is the way out to end racial polarization? Shouldn’t we be level-headed and ignore such SMS instead of forwarding around?
Nevertheless, I believe the source of this cowardly act which created unnecessary tensions and instability among Malaysians and particularly Johorians should be meted out with severe punishment, as a stern reminder that racial unity can’t be taken for granted, especially when even the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also acknowledged a divide.
For that, I would like to call upon everyone out there, if you’re truly dissatisfied with the current deep-seated strains, show your grievances through proper channels and stop supporting the Barisan Nasional’s government through your vote as a sign to the Government that enough is enough, otherwise, any action less than but to dream for a better society will remain an elusive dream.
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50 years of independence and the people are still jumpy over rumours of racial trouble? Where is the deep-seated political stability that the politicians are boasting about?
after all, don’t forget that we are the voters. :)
One wonders whether the purported ‘riots’ might not have been engineered as yet another attempt to distract the public from the REAL scandals and problems like Port Klang, the backdoor insinuation of Syariah law into the secular courts, Altantuya (anyone remember her?), the original corruption and inefficiency which led to the bus tragedy and substandard govt contractors, Taib Mahmud and his timber cronies, etc etc ad infinitum, ad nauseaum.
Now that UMNO-BN has pretty much exhausted the ‘Negarakuku’ controversy as a headline-grabber and Merdeka is over, the timing of the ‘riots’ seems awfully convenient.