We’d like to think of ourselves as occasionally idiotic, but even-handed. However, post-Thomas Cup, after the cheers and woots were followed by a more subdued silence, one man chose to open his big fat mouth.
“Chong Wei vs Lin Dan adalah contoh naif untuk menzahirkan rasa cinta kepada Malaysia. Kedua-dua adalah Cina. Tentu kita menyokong Cina Malaysia daripada Cina China.Katakan, Chong Wei vs Misbun atau Lin Dan vs Misbun atau Lin Dan vs Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia), ketika itu, siapakah yang disokong? Justeru, tidak perlulah berpura-pura mahu menunjukkan cintakan Malaysia, tetapi mengundi ultra kiasu.” – Ridhuan Tee in his column on Sinar Harian.“
What this roughly translates into is…
Chinese people use their love for our badminton champ Chong Wei vs Lin Dan, to emulate love for our country. But he questions what would happen if it was Chong Wei vs Misbun or some other Chinese vs Malay pairing – implying that Chinese Malaysians shouldn’t pretend to love our country.
The back story is that Ridhuan Tee was originally born Tee Chuan Seng about 46 years ago. At 19 he converted to Islam, and somewhere along the line, very oddly, he became an ultra-nationalist, supporting Malay rights and often referring to his Chinese brethren as pendatang. You can read more about him here if you like.
Or you can check out how Malaysian Netizens have been reacting. First, here are the FB shares. I got the ball rolling, with a fairly neutral question to find out what was on the minds of my fellow Malaysians…
Thankfully, I wasn’t alone.
Today’s Cilisos Lesson: this is what a DDoS is.
And of course in this age of Memes, you’ve got this.
and shortly after, this. Hee Hee Hee.
And then you’ve got the individual comments
and this dude, with a very fitting analogy
And this girl, who found a heartwarming picture of people from all races welcoming back our heroes at the airport today.
Apparently though, the guy has his fans. But even that got its share of snarky comments.
On Twitter, things didn’t fare much better for Mr. Tee.
And this lovely little analogy from @adrianlimcheen.
Anyways, you get the idea. Just search for ‘ridhuan‘ on twitter, and you’ll see a lot more. Quite frankly, it’s hard to find anyone who agrees with the article. If you do see any such comments, or any other choice quotes you think should be included in this article, ask for permission from the author and send them to us at chak@cilisos.my. We must be even-handed… of course :).
And finally, a personal message to Mr Tee,
Know that by publishing comments like this, you’ve given us something to rally against. No, it’s not you, you self-important prick. It’s racism.
Because what you’ve done is remind us that despite the forces that rally to break us apart, Malaysians today are more united than we ever have been before.
And for that, we thank you.
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