Netizens have accused a Reddit user whom they believe is a “PAP propagandist” of stirring tensions between Singapore and Malaysia. Last week, the Redditor, who goes by the username chingchongcheng84, posted a note entitled “Thank You Mahathir!” to the Singapore subreddit.
The post made potentially inflammatory claims, such as that Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad “wanted to play the big brother role to shove us around,” “joked about bombing us,” “played up racial and religious politics,” and “used us as a bogeyman and a punching bag.”
Proudly asserting that Singapore persevered despite these threats, the netizen wrote: “Terima kasih Mahathir, for setting an example for us – an example of what we shouldn’t do as a leader and what we should do for our country and our people as well as to create the best future for ourselves.”
The post quickly went viral on the Singapore subreddit and presently has over 900 upvotes. While many agreed with the netizens, several others have pointed out that the post is “extremely jingoistic in nature” and may have caused tensions between Singaporeans and Malaysians online to heat up.
When the netizen’s post was originally posted on the Singapore subreddit, the moderators of the subreddit asked Redditors to “play nice”:
The post was quickly cross-posted to the Malaysia subreddit and the moderators there locked the post, noticing the “brigading” going on on the Singapore subreddit. The moderator further warned users against “brigading” and making calls to action:
Reddit, an online discussion forum, has five rules. No “brigading” is rule number 2. According to the Urban Dictionary, “brigading” in this case refers to “a concentrated effort by one online group to manipulate another. (e.g. by mass commenting)”
Netizens on the Singapore subreddit also branded chingchongcheng84 as a “PAP propagandist” and labelled the post “a dick move” as they expressed surprise that the remarks made in the article went so viral:
A couple days later, chingchongcheng84 posted a random Facebook comment with one reaction by a Malaysian that called for violence against Singaporeans. The Redditor used the comment to make the point that Singaporeans should be careful.
Instead of receiving a favourable response this time, the Redditor received zero upvotes and was slammed for trying to stir tensions between Singaporeans and Malaysians:
