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What more can be said about the 'mengamuk' mentality?

COMMENT | Malay rights agitators threatened to “run amok” if the Indian community persists in implicating the Malays in the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman temple riots.

This ahead of the Umno-PAS anti-Icerd rally tomorrow at Dataran Merdeka, on the same day an International Human Rights Day event was to be held at Padang Timur. Police have now asked Suhakam to postpone the latter.

As I do not read the Malay language papers I cannot fairly comment on how Perkasa’s jihad rally and threats of mengamuk were framed and represented.

But one can safely guess that the Perkasa-PAS-Umno support base is more likely to get its information from the Malay language media where the justification for “running amok” would be framed in the interest of its predominantly Malay readership, just as the Chinese and Indian press would slant their news to the political concerns of its respective audiences.

Wikipedia notes that “amok” originated from the Malaysian/Indonesian word mengâmuk. Roughly defined, to run amok is “to make a furious and desperate charge”. Although used colloquially in a less-violent sense, as Perkasa leader Ibrahim Ali had claimed, the phrase is particularly associated with a sociopathic culture-bound syndrome.

It involves a period of brooding followed by a ...

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