KUALA LUMPUR: Former ntv7 newscaster Sheahnee Iman Lee is deeply concerned over bigoted and inflammatory social media messages involving children that surfaced during the recently-concluded general election.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Sheahnee said that videos had appeared on TikTok showing young Malaysians quoting and hash-tagging box office blockbuster Mat Kilau: Kebangkitan Pahlawan, and sharpening an assortment of knives besides warning Malaysians who voted for Pakatan Harapan (PH) of "May 13" consequences.
Expressing her fears that the youngsters had been "brainwashed" into far-right ideology by their parents and certain fans of the Malay nationalist film, Sheahnee said: "Apart from grossing nearly a whopping RM100 million at the box office, Mat Kilau may go down in history for another more worrying reason.
"These youngsters are hardly old enough to have learnt of the anti-colonial warrior Mat Kilau or the May 13, 1969 riots in depth, nor the complexities of both. But they have the gall to claim that Malaysians who vote PH have forgotten their history. Where did they pick this up?"
Sheahnee lamented that it was "a long way to go" for Malaysians to be free of the ghost of May 13, and racially-charged narratives of history, and urged all parents to educate their children in a balanced, colour-blind manner.
"How long do we need to keep feeding and fanning these deep insecurities before we realise that Malaysia is not Malaysia without each and every one of us, irrespective of race, religion, colour and creed?
"Educating our children in a balanced manner, learning to have conversations with them, watching films and documentaries with them and taking time to explain the grayness of our fractured history is imperative to a peaceful, diverse future is the way."
Yesterday, several PH leaders called for immediate action to be taken against those spreading videos propagating racial sentiments with children as the target audience.
Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil said that the future of the country would be damaged if political slander continues to poison the minds of children.
Fahmi showed screenshots that revealed two parents' conversations with their children after the election, in which the children, who saw some TikTok videos, told them that if PH formed the government, schoolgirls would have to wear short skirts and the Azan would no longer be heard.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani reminded the public not to incite or stir up racial and religious hatred on social media as it could threaten public order.
He said that since the announcement of the election results, the police had detected various social media content that touched on racial and religious sentiments.
Acryl issued a stern warning to social media users to refrain from misusing the platforms for the wrong reasons and that action could be taken under the Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998, the Sedition Act and the Penal Code.
