Malaysia's Chinese and America's Red Indians

What do they have in common? Beats me, too, but Sin Chew's deputy editor Tay Ting Yan seems to think that the Chinese, a minority group in Malaysia, and the Red Indians in today's the USA are linked by some kind of cruel fate.

"... Orang-orang Melayu sudah pun berkuasa, berkedudukan, berpengalaman dan menjadi bangsa yang bermartabat.

"Apa lagi yang mahu mereka pertahankan sekarang ini?

"Cuba anda fikirkan dan bayangkan jika ada sekumpulan orang-orang Amerika kuiti putih mahu pertahankan kaum kulit putih, dan menolak hak orang-orang Red Indian yang curiga terhadap hak dan kuasa orang-orang kulit putih apa akan terjadi?"

He made the analogy in an angry commentary on published by Sin Chew on March 2 and which is making its viral round in cyberspace. Blogger Hidup Tuah! isn't amused by the tone of Tay's commentary and felt that the journalist made an ass of himself by comparing Malaysian Chinese with Red Indians in trying to defend an untenable point.

5. Untuk berlaku adil dan tepat dari segi fakta, Tay sewajarnya membandingkan komposisi penduduk dan kedudukan ekonomi di Malaysia dengan negara-negara seperti Fiji dan Afrika Selatan, Uganda dan Rhodesia. Ianya sebanding di mana kaum minoriti / pendatang menguasai ekonomi negara-negara berkenaan.

6. Oleh kerana kedudukan ekonomi yang sedemikian terhimpit itu dan ditambah pula oleh hak dan kuasa yang semakin terhakis serta terus diburu dengan pelbagai ancaman maka adalah naïf dan dangkal sekali untuk menyamakan usaha 76 buah NGO tersebut hendak membela serta mempertahankan hak kaum mereka sendiri (satu hakikat yang benar) dengan perbuatan bodoh Don Quixote itu.

I met Tay at a book launch in PJ recently, the first time in many years. We used to cover the same assignments as young reporters in KL in the Eighties. Even back then the Chinese newspapers "enjoyed" greater leeway in reporting "sensitive" issues so Tay's commentary Mengigau dan Berkhayal Beramai-ramai is probably no great shake.

When read by a Chinese reader, Tay's article may even be forgettable. But in this digital era and borderless world, everyone reads what you write. A Melayu reading Tay's rantings is bound to lash back, in an equally racist way.

Timbalan Editor Sin Chew Mempersendakan Melayu (by Jebat Must Die) and Suratkhabar Cina *&%! Persendakan Melayu Pertahan Hak (by Dari Kacamata Melayu) are examples of this racial backlash.

Now go read Hidup Tuah's Sin Chew Jit Poh mempersenda 76 NGO Melayu Mengigau dan Berkhayal Beramai-ramai.