Malaysian Bloggers: Harbingers of Racial/Religious Hatred and Disloyalty?

In this entry, I will explain more on what I mean by blogs and bloggers who promote hatred.

When I read some of the blogs who say that they are from Malaysia, I have a feeling that they are engaging and/or promoting hatred. Because blogs is a form of is speech expression – it is perhaps informative to say that these blogs are engaging in hate speech. Hate speech can be defined as a misuse of free speech. Conceptually hate speech is the use of speech to instill hatred or insults to objects such as person(s) or group(s). In the context of Malaysia, hate speech is defined as anything that insults religion, the King, racial groups. From my un-empirical observations of the Malaysian blogosphere, it is always the case that the – usually more influential alternative point-of-view blogs promote hate speech.

So who are the perpetrators of hate speech in the Malaysian blogosphere. There are many – so I will only give some examples. Take for example Screenshots. Screenshots is an influential blog, due to the fact of its high readership rates. In some cases, this blog do provide sensible opinions. But in some entries, this blog seem to promote hate speech. For example, I think I remember reading racially insensitive comments when the NEP was discussed.

Another example is Malaysia Today. In this blog, some commentators have blatantly bashed Malays, the Bumiputra and even the Islamic religion. Malaysia Today is an influential blog as it also attracts high readership.

There are a few other blogs that seem to dedicate themselves to preaching hate speech. These blogs are not as influential but nevertheless attracts a degree of readership. These are Politics 101 and Education Malaysia. I think I remember reading how Politics 101 commented about Prophet Muhammad during the so called ‘cartoon row’. When I read Politics 101’s comments about Islam, I would say that this blogger hates Islam and he also promotes hate speech by giving space to like-minded commentators.

Now, I have to say that  Education Malaysia is a more sophisticated blog. This blog discusses the so called appalling state of the Malaysian education system. However, in criticizing the education system, this blog has gone down to a level that the comments for many of its entries (such as this one) are somewhat engaging in hate speech.

I think, with the exception Malaysia Today, the other blogs seem to be written by Non-Malays and Non-Muslims.

Sometimes I don’t understand why these bloggers incite or promote hate speech. Don’t they value the tranquility and social harmony that is now prevalent in Malaysia? Don’t they understand that their writings can hurt the feelings of other people? Don’t they know that when they are insulting Islam, they are insulting the religion of the majority? Don’t they know that when they are insulting the King, they are insulting a very important institution of the Malaysian state? Are these bloggers stupid and ignorant to the social reality that is prevalent in Malaysia?

To be fair, there are some Malay bloggers who promote hate speech. But in comparison to the Non-Malay-Non-Muslim bloggers, their numbers are very small. I give two examples – Bukan Islam Liberal and Critical Thoughts.  Anyway, I can’t seem to find the site – Bukan Islam Liberal. Has that site vanished? I also understand that the author of these two sites was hounded and vilified by other bloggers and commentators last year or so, ostensibly because he was saying something bad about another religion.

At this juncture I would say that the efforts of those bloggers are better spent in higher causes – such as supporting democracy in Burma. [see this post: Burma – What Bloggers Can Do? for some suggestions].