Malaysia is facing a barrage of fake news and a focus on racial politics but if Malaysians watch the “M for Malaysia” documentary, they will see the powerful antidote to the recent disruptions in the country.
This is the message from Democratic Action Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang who is upset with the spread of fake news and hate speech in the country.
Lim says the 90-minute documentary film directed and produced by Dian Lee and Ineza Roussille, who is Mahathir’s granddaughter, serves as a powerful antidote against fake news and hate speech.
He points out the film, which chronicles Harapan’s historic win in the last general election, also laid to rest that May 9, 2018, was a Chinese plot to seize political power from the Malays.
“It is a must-see film for every Malaysian as it’s a powerful antidote to the recent barrage of fake news and hate speech to create racial and religious conflagration on the baseless premise that the Malays have lost political power as the May 9, 2018 historic change was a Chinese conspiracy to grab power from the Malays,” says Lim.
He calls former Prime Minister Najib Razak the pedlar-in-chief of fake news and hate speech during the 14th General Election.
Najib he says was utterly reckless in “his divisive, provocative and polarizing character to tear asunder a fragile plural society comprising of diverse races, religions, languages and cultures!”
“Who will forget what Najib said on the eve of the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 when he said that there were no Malays at Pakatan Harapan ceramahs and that the tens of thousands who gathered to hear Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in the various parts in the country were DAP supporters bussed in by DAP,” he asks.
Lim says Malaysians would be reminded from the film “M for Malaysia” that the crowds at the ceramahs for Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan in the 14th General Election campaign were very spontaneous and representative of the Malays, Chinese and Indians in Peninsular Malaysia.
This was exposing the lies and falsehoods – escalated in the recent barrage of fake news and hate speech in the last few months – that the change of government on May 9, 2018 was Chinese grabbing Malay political power.”
Lim also lambasted the opposition for crafting stories and plots similar to the last two parliamentary meetings when fake news surfaced regarding attempts to push forth no-confidence motions against Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The veteran politician says the coming budget parliamentary meeting starting on Oct 7 would be no exception.
“I expect soon to read juicy reports about non-existent conspiracies involving Pakatan Harapan members of Parliament plotting to move a ‘no-confidence’ motion against Mahathir when the forthcoming parliamentary budget meeting nears,” he adds.
He says political opportunists in Malaysia are also becoming desperate to the point of predicting racial riots in Malaysia at the end of the year.
“They hope that the ‘hothouse’ atmosphere in the social media over race and religious polarisation would spread from the Internet to real-life Malaysia,” he says.