Malaysia's snitch society By Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy

Malaysiakini : “Remember, you're an informant now. That means responsibilities, like conspiracy and confidentiality, but also privileges...”

- The Lives of Others (German film)

COMMENT | I have no idea why the MCMC is questioning two Facebook administrators for possibly inciting public disorder when this should be under police jurisdiction with the MCMC playing a supporting role.

While I understand why certain groups are livid with what these administrators have done, the real issue here is how the religious and political establishment is enabling a society of snitches.

Now, when I say snitches, I do not mean whistleblowers who for whatever reasons, are exposing corporate or political malfeasances but rather the average Joe Rakyat engaging in behaviour against the “other” for mala fide purposes. What these administrators were doing was encouraging citizens to document and publish state-sanctioned behaviour. In this case, it was “illegal” Hindu temples.

Now of course what is illegal would be difficult to determine but the point of these types of groupthink is to destroy social cohesiveness for an ultimate agenda. What they were doing was encouraging like-minded citizens to enable the destruction of places of worship without regard for the feelings of their fellow citizens.

Not only is this malicious but it also creates an atmosphere where people with not much power feel powerful. This enables the state which is all-powerful a distraction from its failings. And honestly what these administrators were doing is not something alien to the state.

Think about it. The prime minister said the recently relocated 130-year-old temple was “illegal”. This of course is complete horse manure which has already been pointed out, hence what these administrators were doing is merely taking it to the logical extreme.

The 130-year-old Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur

Of course, there were rumblings that the temple committee was compensated for something illegal but this is what happens when you proclaim victory in the name of religion.

Nothing is ever enough to satisfy the delusionally self-righteous. But remember, encouraging people to report any kind of supposed infraction against the religion of the state or even majoritarian preoccupations is something that the state has always enabled.

In 2019 Pakatan Harapan's then-religious czar Mujahid Yusof Rawa proudly stated that Putrajaya had created a special unit supervised by the Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to monitor all media for insults against the Prophet and Islam.

“I have instructed the unit to accept any complaints about insults towards the Prophet and Islam, and to immediately report them to the police and the Communications and Multimedia Commission,” Mujahid had said.

This has nothing to do with protecting the sanctity of the religion of the state, but everything to do with making average citizens complicit in the diktats of the government. This is about making citizens turn on each other in the name of religion thereby empowering the religious state.

Read it all here.....