Youth campaign blasts multiple misuses of race and religion in GE15

GE15 | Youth campaign #KamiNampak has decried candidates’ use of race and religion, even in the first few days of campaigning.

"The use of race and religion card includes disinformation, misinformation and malinformation of a racial or religious group, falsely manufacturing or associating a political, economic or social threat, and emphasised the use of one’s own race or religion to garner support.

"Over 60 youth volunteers are involved in monitoring social media accounts of election candidates in all 222 parliamentary contests across Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube," said the group in a statement.

#KamiNampak volunteers identified several candidates who have misused race or religion in their social media campaign:

1) PAS-Perikatan Nasional candidate for Rantau Panjang Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff shared a post on Facebook on Nov 6 of a video emphasising non-Muslims as enemies, with the caption mentioning "Muslims are obligated to vote to ensure non-Muslims do not become leaders as they will ruin Islam".

#KamiNampak categorised this as falsely manufacturing or associating a political, economic or social threat with a racial or religious group.

2) DAP-Pakatan Harapan candidate for Klang V Ganabatirau said in an interview with SelangorTV posted on Nov 6 that "the flooding of foreigners is horrible here, I'm worried Pasar Meru Klang will become like Pasar Selayang soon".

#KamiNampak categorised this as advocacy of hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, and hostility towards a racial or religious group.

3) Pejuang-GTA candidate for Balik Pulau Fazli Mohammad, shared a post on Nov 7 with a caption requoting a citizen: "They worry about Malays slowly shrinking in Balik Pulau parliamentary seat and Bayan Lepas state assembly seat that will lose its Malay majority during GE16 causing the development of luxury condominiums that Malays can only see and cannot buy."

#KamiNampak categorised this as falsely manufacturing or associating a political, economic or social threat with a racial or religious group.

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4) PSB candidate for Lanang Priscilla Lau made a TikTok video reposted on Facebook in which she is heard saying, "Give us your vote and do not let the foreigners come in to look after our affairs. They have proven that they cannot do it."

#KamiNampak categorised this as motivated use of negative stereotypes of a racial or religious group.

"We urge for candidates to campaign on policies and practices, rather than the inflated use of race and religion as a selling point," said Jason Wee, Architects of Diversity (AOD) co-founder and #KamiNampak coordinator.

He said the use of the race and religion card is short-sighted and hurts the ability of different communities in Malaysia to trust each other.

#KamiNampak is a campaign by AOD and part of the Rapid Response Team of Centre for Independent Journalism's 15th General Election Social Media Monitoring campaign.

For more information and for public reports of the use of race and religion in elections, visit here.

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