The video which went viral shows a Malay father describing Indians and Chinese in derogatory terms and stereotypes them as gangsters and drunk drivers.
In the minute-long video commissioned by Ikram for Merdeka, a father is seen on a chair looking at videos on his phone while his son does his homework at a nearby table and his mother cleans a table in the background.
Scrolling through various videos, the father asks himself: “What is wrong with these India k****g? They are always fighting. What is happening to Malaysia?”.
“These Cina b***t are the same. Always driving drunk and running into others. What is wrong with them?”
His wife quickly admonishes him, stating that “Islam does not teach us to say things like that”.
The next scene shows the son rushing to the mother while telling her he had finished his homework, which was a drawing of a Malay, Chinese and Indian – with the Malaysian flag in the background.
While she first says the drawing is “very nice”, she is soon shocked after taking a closer look and seeing that her son has written the words “He is k****g” and “He likes gangsters” under the Indian character named Mutu, and the words “He is Cina b***t” and “He likes to get drunk” under the Chinese character named Chong.
The video then has the boy saying: “I was not born racist, but I was taught”.
The video ends with the hashtag #MerdekaBersama and Selamat Hari Merdeka.
Throughout the video, a disclaimer on the top says “The racist words observed in this video are for filming purposes only and should not be practised at all.”
Ikram vice-president Shahrul Aman Mohd Shaari would not comment on the video when contacted.
“We will most probably issue a statement later,” he said.
The logos of Ikram, TV Ikram and the Sinar Harian newspaper were displayed at the end of the video, but the Malay daily owned by the Karangkraf Media Group insists it had no role in the video.
Karangkraf media group chairman Hussamuddin Yaacub told FMT that Sinar Harian played “no part at all” in the video’s production and did not upload it to their social media platforms.
Hussamuddin explained that Ikram approached Sinar Harian to be their media partner for their Merdeka campaign, to which they agreed “in the spirit of Merdeka”.
“But when they posted the video on their platform yesterday and asked us to share it on ours… our editors felt the video was a bit sensitive,” he said.
“The messaging is clear in the second part, but the first part is a bit crude. I don’t think they had any bad intentions on their part, I think it was maybe a wrong judgement.
“We called them to say we are not going to carry it and we advised them to take it down on their platform, which they quickly did.”