"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"

Shocked. Really shocked. That was how i felt initially after watching the latest viral video that has created a storm among the online community. Yes I’m talking about none other than the video that shows the President of Suara Wanita 1 Malaysia (SW1M) humiliating a UUM student in front of 2300+ students in a forum held in that particular university.
When the initial shock subsided, I was overtaken by ANGER. Yes the very same feeling that overtook the judgment and rationality of most of us. (HUH??? wait, what??) 

                                                                 The infamous video.

                                                                        Source: YOUTUBE.

Look I’m not saying what happened is right. It’s not. No student should be made to feel how Bawani (that's the name of the student in the video in case you’re wondering.) felt.  Well you see, most adults’ feel that youths these days are detached from politics and other happenings in the country and that all we care about are KPOP, CLUBS, MOVIES & SOCIAL SITES. And who can blame them?? Most of us are detached from reality anyways. Do a random survey on the streets today regarding any issue that is happening in the country or the world and chances are you will be greeted with a blur look. Don’t believe me? Well feel free to try it. But Wait! Hold your horses! I’m not saying ALL youths are ignorant but I’m also not denying that SOME are. And finally when we get a student like BAWANI who has the courage to speak up and the knowledge to match, she gets shot down with personal remarks on her education background. (WTH right??)

 Sharifah demanded respect. She said that we should respect our elders. Yes I agree, we should respect our elders BUT not just because they are older than us but because they have earned their respect. Now tell me, would you respect a 50 year old man who raped his granddaughter? Do you think a 30 year old woman who abuses her maid deserves respect? Do you think Hitler who claimed many lives deserves respect? If your answer to these questions is yes then I would like to know- WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?????!!!!!!  Using the same logic, I admit that I’ve got no respect whatsoever for Sharifah Zohra Jabeen.But why? She didn’t rape, abuse or kill anyone right? What’s the big deal? Well I don’t see a reason to respect a woman of higher authority who insults a student  who was just trying to make a point. If you disagree with someone, the right and smart thing to do is to argue it out with facts and figures, you don’t insult the education background of the other person or deny her to speak. Sharifah also mention about Democracy in the video, well can a good soul please go explain to her what democracy really means?? Because I feel she has it confused with dictatorship. And what’s with the nonsense about “if you don’t like it here feel free to go to some other Country”? Whatever happened to “If you don’t like it make an effort to change it” attitude??? Sigh. At the end it all boils down to one's mentality and Sharifah, sorry to say but yours is as shallow as the drains near my house. (Trust me the drains at my place are very very shallow..:P)

 “WHEN I SPEAK YOU LISTEN” -dictatorship much?

Anyways coming back to our topic, so why did I say that the anger we felt regarding this video has clouded our judgment and rationality? Well firstly did any one of you during this whole video recording noticed any racial slurs given by Sharifah? NO?
Well neither did I. So where is all this racial comments suddenly coming from?? So what if BAWANI is an Indian student and Sharifah was a Muslim woman? What happened was the denial of one's right to speak and to express one's self. So what is the need to pick on one's race to make a point?

When the video first went viral, there were people who were supporting Sharifah. This one particular  lady however decided to take her 'supportiveness' a little too far by hurling racial slurs i.e. pic below

SOURCE : FACEBOOK.

This pic then starting popping out everywhere on facebook and TA-DA the racial war begins. You see, the funny thing about us Indians is we don’t mind spoiling our own name by making our mark in Gangsterism, and crime or disrespecting our culture (Thaipusam is coming up, Go see for yourselves in Batu Caves.) but hey one word against us by someone else and then all hell break loose. All of a sudden we get worked up and start retaliating. I am an INDIAN but when I saw the video, I saw a brave student taking a stand. That’s it. Period. What difference does it make if she wasn't an Indian? To me, none. If the same would have happened to a Malay, Chinese or a student of any other race, I would have reacted the same way.

To the lady who decided to use race as a weapon to further insult BAWANI, well I honestly feel sorry for you. I don’t think you will succeed in life. Not with that kind of mentality.

To the people who retaliated with equally racist statements-Where the hell is your brain when you need it? What makes you any better than her when you are also doing the same thing? THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE ON RACE. Please get that into your thick skull. This is an issue of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.  Gandhi once said- “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. He is right you know. Yes racist remarks against my race makes me angry but instead of retaliating the same way, show her that we are way better by IGNORING her. Show her how stupid she is by proving to her that we are MALAYSIANS first, only then are we INDIANS, MALAYS, CHINESE etc.

 Right now from where I’m seeing it, this video that started out as an issue of pure ignorance and stupidity has now taken an ugly turn towards racism. Things are only going to get uglier after this when both sides start throwing racial slurs at each other without much thought for the consequences ahead.

All I can do is hope that we are way smarter than this.