PETALING JAYA: Malaysians, while exercising their right to free speech, should not refer to any race or nationality using derogatory terms, advised Asia’s top debater Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
The 23-year-old former Perdana fellow said that while there was nothing wrong in speaking one’s mind about the plan by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to bring 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers into the country, stereotyping the whole race was not the “Malaysian way.”
“Don’t call them (the Bangladeshis) names like ‘rapists’, ‘robbers’ or ‘trash’. Such actions are immoral and do not represent Malaysian values.
“When we are abroad, we dislike being stereotyped, we share videos about Islamophobia in the West on a daily basis. But it is embarrassing that we do the same thing in our own land,” said Syed in a Facebook post last night.
“Where are our manners?”
Giving the example of how not all Bangladeshis were foreign workers doing dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs, he said that his roommate-cum-debate partner was a Bangladeshi who was conferred the titles of Asian Debate Champion and World Class Debater.
Furthering his point, Syed also pointed to Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.
“Both are exceptional people from the country that many of you have decided to call ‘bangsa perogol’ (rapists).
“Before we start judging a person based on their race or nationality, ask yourself, do you like being stereotyped?”
He added that despite his personal disagreement with the influx of foreign workers, he would never label them “bangsa perompak” (robbers) as they were also human beings.
-FMT NEWS-
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