“People don’t think responsibly, censor their thoughts or use caution before they write and post their comments,” said Malaysian Psychological Association president Goh Chee Leong. “They don’t think of the consequences.”
FMT interviewed Goh in the wake of angry reactions by Malaysian social media users to the recent beating of a lorry driver by a group of people at a condo in Ampang. The attack came after the driver reversed his vehicle into a parked Mercedes Benz.
Several users posted the registration number of the Mercedes and warned the owner that they were “waiting” for the car to pass by their homes.
Goh said it was common to find social media users “talking big” and even sounding radical when posting comments because of the perceived safety in anonymity.
“Most of it is brave talk, but rhetoric may lead some people into taking the insidious talk seriously and acting on it,” he said.
Apart from the intense reaction to the assault on the lorry driver, social media users were also critical of the police. A typical comment was that the police were “useless and corrupt”.
There were accusations that the police protected the rich and well-connected and were not doing their job and this was the reason that crime was rampant.
On Sunday, more than 200 lorry drivers staged a protest at the Sungai Besi toll plaza to show their solidarity with the victim of the attack.
Criminologist P Sundramoorthy, an associate professor at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said it would be a misconception to think that people took things into their own hands because the police were not doing their job.
“Such incidents have to do with the fact that some people are willing to resort to violence instead of solving disputes in a civil manner,” he said. “Even petty matters like minor road accidents have led to altercations and even physical aggression.
“Can we blame it on stress, the change in values, people choosing to ignore social norms and taking the law into their own hands? There may be many factors to explain why some people choose violence.”
Forty years ago, he said, getting into trouble with the law was a social stigma and it was a “big deal” to go through the criminal justice process. However, members of contemporary society would act according to what they thought was appropriate, he added.
“It is a worrying trend. The long term solution is education, and in the meantime the law cannot be lenient in punishing those who act as they like. Leniency will only increase the probability of others behaving in the same way.”
Sundramoorthy said protesting against the incident in Ampang was “a bit of an exaggeration” since there was no evidence of a trend of violence against lorry drivers.
He said the meaning of protests had been diluted, and demonstrations were distracting attention from core issues and wasting the country’s resources.
Yesterday, Selangor police said five suspects in the Ampang assault, including a woman, had been arrested.
Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar meanwhile warned the public against being on the lookout for the owner of the Mercedes or posting the car’s registration number online.