Road rage reveals racist Malaysians

Tolerance is often a catch-phrase in multi-racial Malaysia - but Malaysian behaviour has been anything but tolerant, if recent widely publicised videos on road rage are to go by.

Road rage is simply an issue of anger, but the racial abuses that come with it beg the question: Are Malaysians really racist?

In a latest video footage, a woman is seen throwing tantrums and making racist remarks at a couple after her car was hit from behind near the Singapore custom at Woodlands.

The woman repeatedly uses a derogatory term for Indians on the couple, and also repeatedly labels them as ‘pariah’.

Posted on Facebook by one Dean Syed on Aug 1, the video has so far been shared more than 6,000 times.

Dean Syed said he honked at a female driver driving a Proton car and she deliberately jammed her brakes, causing his car to hit her car.

"Even though it is my mistake, should I be treated in this manner? Please listen to her racist remarks and the daughter’s behaviour."

In the video, the elderly woman is seen accusing Dean of hitting her car on purpose, and demanded compensation despite the man insisting that she could claim insurance.

 Dean's wife is seen criticising the woman for supposedly giving them the middle finger, to which she rebutted that Dean had raised his hand at her vehicle first, adding: "Don't think you are Singaporean, you are so clever?"

Bad example for children

The angry woman appeared to be ferrying two little girls and a teenage girl in the vehicle. The teenage girl later got down and repeatedly kicked the man's vehicle.

Dean who also had a toddler in his car, did not react to this.

This incident comes after the case of Siti Fairrah Ashyikin Kamaruddin, better known as Kiki, who abused a senior citizen for hitting her vehicle.

In her verbal abuses, which were also recorded and went viral on the social media, Kiki questioned whether the senior citizen thought he was better than her because of his race.

The reactions on the social media to Dean Syed's case have been just as racially charged.

Facebook Grasio Australia said: “Very upset with Malay people, if she is a Muslim she shouldn't react like this.”

Another YouTube user Sofia Muhammad tried to justify the abuse, saying: “To Dean Syed, you also made an attempt to make a racial slur, but you stopped half-way, noticing that your wife is taking the video."

Those are just comments with mild racial undertones, and there are many more that are not appropriate for publication.

All these are incidents that have made onto social media. Then, what about those that have not?

'Knocked and abused'

Celine Yap is another victim of road bully who has complained about her predicament on Facebook. And despite recording a video on the incident, she has not put it up on the Internet.

Yap's complaint has gone viral, with almost 5,000 shares since it was posted on Aug 3.

"I was a victim of a bully. I was threatened, assaulted and my car was damaged," she said in the posting.

Yap said a man had parked his Perodua Alza by her car in Petaling Jaya and had appeared to have accidentally hit her car when he opened his door.

"The impact made my car shake. I lightly honked at the guy to make him aware of my presence. The wife saw what happened and said, "Bang, pintu."

"He then closed the door and swing it open a second time and hit my car harder this time and said "Ooops" sarcastically.

"He then came to my window and shouted sarcastically, "Sorry, ah, sorry ,ah." He then walked away and stared back at me and said, “kurang ajar”.

Yap said when the man came back, he deliberately slapped his door into her vehicle for the third time.

After she alighted to check her vehicle for damage, the man reversed and his wing mirror hit her arm, throwing her onto her own vehicle, and he then gave her a thumbs up.

'I felt bullied, helpless'

"I felt bullied, discriminated, weak, and helpless. Just because I am a lady, and I am petite, doesn't give anyone at all the right to treat me this way," she said.

When contacted, Yap told Malaysiakini she had lodged a police report on the matter.

“This is my second time encountering with a road bully and I am not the one who sits and keeps silent about it.

“We have our rights, and it is time to stand up for them. Inconvenience and the usual ‘tidak apa’ (lackadaisical) attitude should not hinder us from standing up for our rights,” she said.

Her predicament also courted racial reaction on social media but Yap stressed this was not about race.

“It matters not to me whether he is a Malay or a Chinese or an Indian. What matters to me is the way he treated a fellow Malaysian,” she said.

Due to the increase in road rage cases, the government last year proposed to introduce a new driving curriculum to teach Malaysian motorists proper road ethics and counter the "bad attitude" of drivers.

Road Transport Department director-general Ismail Ahmad (left) said then that the new syllabus would be aimed at emphasising proper driving ethics and to curb road accidents through education and awareness.

The move came after a study by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) showed 18 percent of the 13.3 million registered drivers in Malaysia were categorised as 'high-anger' drivers.

As for a fix to racism on the part of road users - that will be left to the ordinary Malaysians.