A week after racist slurs were hurled at the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally, three students conduct a novel social experiment to see if Malaysia is indeed as racially-fractured as rally may suggest.

In the social experiment, the three college students blindfold themselves and stand at a thoroughfare at a Klang Valley higher education institute.

Taking turns, students S Sathisvaran, Choo Jian Tatt and Muhd Shukri Rahmad hold placards declaring themselves as “Malaysians first” and their respective ethnicities second.

“Hug me if you agree!” the placard reads.

The idea came about when the trio, all interns at Tarantella Pictures, brainstormed ideas on a social experiment that is both important to them and close to the hearts of Malaysians.

“I’ve always wanted to produce a film which has a multiracial theme,” media and communications student Sathisvaran told Malaysiakini .

“(I got) lots (of hugs)! It was very overwhelming!” he gushed.

Tarantella Pictures managing director Sharad Sharan said the students wanted to show the beauty of Malaysian society.

He added the credit goes entirely to the three students, with Tarantella only providing some technical support.

But according to Sathisvaran, it took a lot of convincing to get Tarantella on board as the management was worried the topic might be “too sensitive”.

“So I had a tough time explaining it’s just a message (we want to) get out there and test the response.

“We were very close to shutting down the idea due to its sensitivity. But I fought for it and took the risk,” he said.

Deeply moved

His efforts seemed to have paid off even before the video of the social experiment hit the Youtube page ‘Prank Asia’.

A passer-by who caught Sathisvaran in action took a photograph of him, which was shared more than 3,000 times within 24 hours.

Ashley Grieg, who posted the photograph, said Sathisvaran was in tears after he received hugs and words of encouragement from people of various races.

“Deeply moved, I approached him and gave him a long, warm hug and told him: "Whoever it is that you are, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of what you're doing here. Thank you for giving us all hope that there is a better tomorrow waiting for us."

“I walked away in tears... and a renewed sense of hope for our beloved Malaysia,” Grieg wrote.

Watch video

As I was leaving my workplace, I bumped into this boy who was standing with his arms wide open. There were many people who were passing by and had stopped to give him a hug each. I saw men and women of all races and religious beliefs giving him hugs and shouting out words of encouragement. It was truly a beautiful sight. By then, he was already in tears. Deeply moved, I approached him and gave him a long, warm hug and told him, "Whoever it is that you are, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of what you're doing here. Thank you for giving us all hope that there is a better tomorrow waiting for us." I walked away with tears in both our eyes, and a renewed sense of hope for our beloved Malaysia. #SayaBangsaMalaysia #SayNoToRacism #immalaysianfirst

A photo posted by Ashley Greig (@ashleygreig) on

Sep 22, 2015 at 2:56am PDT

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