The voices of moderation, rationality and tolerance deserve to be heard louder.

Road bully Siti Fairrah Ashykin Kamaruddin, better known as Kiki, must be happy that her case has been settled before Raya. She has been fined RM5,000 and ordered by the Sessions Court to perform 240 hours of community service.

She had pleaded guilty to intentionally committing mischief with a steering lock by hitting the bonnet and front windscreen of retiree Sim Siak Hong’s car.

In mitigation, she told the court she has learnt her lesson and that she has also apologised to Uncle Sim.

Uncle Sim had forgiven her earlier, and even refused to press charges against her. He had also hoped that she would not be charged by the authorities, insisting that the case should be closed.

Malaysians who have been following the case must have surely felt a sense of relief and renewed hope because people of all races came together in defence of Uncle Sim.

The majority of rational and fair-minded Malaysians did not see him as an ethnic Chinese but instead regarded him as another Malaysian who was unfairly treated by an aggressive young bully.

The angry voices came from all races who were outraged at her thuggish behaviour and, worse, her utterance of racial remarks.

Obviously Kiki, 30, did not know that she was being recorded on video screaming at Uncle Sim, 68, after his car bumped into her new Peugeot 208 recently.

The short video clip, which went viral on social media, showed Kiki brandishing a car steering lock, hammering Sim’s car with it, and demanding that he paid for the damage while a cool and composed Uncle Sim tried to calm her down.

Kiki must have acted in such a harsh manner believing that the mainly Malay onlookers were on her side, purely on racial grounds. But she was wrong.

The reactions that followed on Facebook and Twitter were swift and furious. The comments, whether in Bahasa Malaysia, English or other languages, demonstrated that Malaysians could not accept such blatant bullying. Malaysians were in one voice telling her off.

Later, radio stations that invited her to speak on air had a lesson to learn – another round of firing came at her and them as well. Most Malaysians were outraged, feeling that she did not deserve to become a celebrity of sorts and share her story on the air waves. If she wanted to talk, she should do so at the police station. There were even calls to boycott the radio stations concerned.

It must be noted, however, that Uncle Sim subsequently also got to share his story on another radio station.

Be that as it may, what is clear from this incident is that there is a sense of oneness among Malaysians who saw this strictly from the perspective of a young road bully venting her anger on an elderly man.

It was sickening that a few individuals decided to inject race and religion into the equation, with one asking what the outcome would be if Kiki had been the victim and Uncle Sim the aggressor. Seriously, it takes a twisted racial mind to look at this incident from that angle.

To all fair-minded Malaysians, wrong is wrong. It is as simple as that.

Likewise, a victim of a snatch theft who manages to catch the criminal and then give him a beating does so simply because that man is a crook. To even suggest that one should be on the side of the thief because he is of the same race is, well, warped thinking.

The correct thing to do is not to take the law into our own hands but to deliver the thief to the police. Still, it would appear that some of us cannot even differentiate between a right and a wrong when the racial factor is thrown in.

There are only good people and bad people – and all races have their good and bad people.

We hope politicians and self-declared champions of their races heard this message well. We hope they followed the case on social media too.

Likewise, the sad event of MH17 has seen Malaysians coming together. How we wish that Malaysians could come together not only during a disaster, or to cheer on a Malaysian in a badminton final, but at all times.

We all reacted angrily at the silly statements made by Tan Poh See, the wife of Penang DAP Member of Parliament Ng Wei Aik, who posted on Facebook that “Malaysia is a scary nation, what kind of a useless country is this?”

She withdrew her posting and apologised after she was hammered by Malaysians of all races.

But obviously there was another one as dumb as her. A classic case of dumb and dumber. Federal Territory Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii retorted with a tweet demanding that Tan “balik Tongsan (go back to China)”.

If that was not enough, Kedah PAS Youth information chief Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman issued a statement saying that the MH17 crash was a punishment on the airline for serving alcohol on flights and the outfits of its attendants.

Obviously, Ahmad Tarmizi needed to achieve notoriety in his own right after assuming the post vacated by his predecessor Lotfi Ariffin, who was sacked after deciding to become an armed militant in Syria.

Racial and religious bigots who are on the fringes of politics are an embarrassment to their political parties, really, but they continue to be given generous space by certain news portals.

And we must not forget that some so-called ordinary people are also making use of their own social media platforms to articulate bigoted and zealous views, though they may not get as much attention as those who are politically linked.

At the end of the day, the voices of moderation, rationality and tolerance deserve to be heard louder. That is the only way to drown out the extremist voices. Let Malaysians continue to speak as one, at all times, and on all occasions.

The MH17 tragedy has brought back some common sense to us, reminding us that as a country and as a people, we all share many things together – the joys and the pains – regardless of our race and religion.

IT’S 7.35pm on a Friday night at Angkasapuri. The Prime Minister had just started to break his fast with a sip of water and a small bite of a date when a phone call came in. His aide whispered to him that it was from the United Nations Secretary-General.

The conversation between Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Ban Ki-moon took almost 15 minutes during which they exchanged views on the MH17 tragedy.

When it was over, Najib gave an outline of his conversation to those of us at the same table who were watching what was taking place.

“I am waiting for a call from (President) Putin in the next 30 minutes,” Najib said as he finally managed to start his actual meal.

When the Russian president finally called at around 8.30pm, Najib had to quietly excuse himself to go to a nearby room to escape from the loud music playing near the table. This time, the conversation seemed shorter.

His aides quickly found time to brief him before his nationwide television appearance over RTM which was coming up.

The Prime Minister has had little sleep since the shooting down of MH17 on Thursday night by what is believed to be a Soviet-era BUK surface-to-air missile. Ironic as it sounds, the Russians had tried to sell the BUK system to our Malaysian military in the 1990s.

By Najib’s own admission, it all seemed unreal. When he received a late night call from a top MAS official on Thursday night, he said, he sensed it would not be good news. We all know what it is like to receive a call in the still of the night.

If the word “unprecedented” was repeatedly used by the then acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to describe the MH370 tragedy, which until now remains unresolved, the same word could also be used in this latest tragedy.

No airline has ever been involved in two major disasters within a span of four months and involving so many passengers. To put it another way, it appeared that lightning has indeed struck twice on our unfortunate Malaysia Airlines.

It is like a bad sequel, and an almost unbelievable one even by Hollywood movie-making standards. For ordinary Malaysians, it is what we call “sial” in Bahasa Malaysia or an almost similar sounding “soey” in Hokkien and Cantonese. Translated, it means bad luck.

There are just three key questions from Malaysia: Was MH17 shot down? And if yes, who gave the order and who were the aggressors? And, finally, what action will be taken against the culprits?

This is simply cold-blooded murder of the highest degree. It is a pure criminal act and the fact is a total of 298 innocent lives have been lost for a quarrel that is not ours. MH17 found itself caught in this disgusting feud between Russia and Ukraine.

As Najib rightly pointed out, we are victims of a geo-political war. It has gone beyond just two countries as the big powers take sides.

Putin has given his assurance that Russia would assist in the investigations but, like many, I would take this with more than just a pinch of salt. The Russians have already started their international spin, using the media and social media, to reveal their conspiracy theory of Ukraine wanting to shoot down a plane carrying Putin. It seems that the colours on Putin’s presidential plane and MAS’ bear striking similarities, although one must ask how people on the ground can even see a plane cruising at 30,000ft.

The Ukrainians have also fed the media with purported secret recordings and a video clip from their secret agents showing pro-Russian rebels using the BUK to shoot down the plane and, not to forget, bringing the black box to the Kremlin.

All these reports are unverified, of course.

It is also sickening to read the barrage of attacks against Malaysia Airlines for using the route over this war-torn region. That same route was used by Singapore Airlines, India Airlines, Thai Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and KLM before the gunning down of MH17.

The manner of the criticism seems to be to put MAS in a bad light and to suggest incompetency on our part. We get the drift. No one is saying anything about the other airlines who also took the risky path, if you want to use this argument.

In fact, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost used the same route to fly back to India from Germany on Thursday.

Indian news media reported that Modi’s flight to Ukraine’s Donetsk region from Germany was heading towards the same area where MH17 was shot down.

Modi’s flight (Air India-001) took off from Frankfurt, Germany, at 1122 GMT and the Malaysian airliner went off the radar at 1320 GMT. It was then that Modi’s plane was en route to Donetsk, which would be approximately three hours of flight time.

If Modi had travelled in the same path for another hour, he would have been in the same region as MH17, the report claimed. The route was later changed after news of the attack was communicated to Indian officials, according to the reports.

According to Der Spiegel Online, the reputable German news media, SIA used the same route 75 times last week against MAS’ 48 times.

It reportedly said that Russian Aeroflot flew past 86 times in the last seven days and German Airline Lufthansa had a record of 56 times. Ukraine International Airlines, surely familiar with the situation in the region, used the same route 62 times.

So it was not wrong for Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai to say the routes were deemed safe then. They have now been regarded as unsafe only because of what happened on Thursday after our plane was shot down. It’s as simple as that.

As a nation, the majority of Malaysians are standing together as one and I am glad of this. I have always believed that God has his reasons for every­thing. Whatever trials or tribulations we go through, we never know why, nor understand them, especially during the most painful moments.

We ask why this must happen to Malaysia. Those who shot us down probably don’t even know where Malaysia is located.

It has been very decent for DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang to urge Malaysians to rally behind Najib as we grapple with this sadness.

The tragedy has brought back some common sense to us, reminding us that as a country and as a people, we all share many things together – the joys and the pains – regardless of our race and religion.

As mortals, we lead fragile lives. Away from all those silly racial trivialities that have disturbed us, we need to worry about bigger issues. We will stand together, Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the ghost of May 13 remains unburied. It is used as a threat even by some recent groups whose handful of members, if there are any, were not even born then. 

I AM now 53 years old and although I feel I am still in my early 40s, that does not stop younger people from addressing me as Uncle.

The other reality I have to accept is that I can now be officially admitted as a member in many senior citizens clubs as 50 is usually the entry point.

Biologically, it would not be wrong to say that my body is already half buried, if you understand what I am trying to say.

Here’s the point – when the May 13 riots took place in 1969, I was only eight years old, or more precisely I was only in Standard Two.

At that tender age, I could remember, based on what my parents told me, that people of different races were killing one another. As a curfew was in force, even a young, restless person like me had to be told what was going on.

I lived in a predominantly Malay area in Penang but the Federal Reserve Unit officers were mostly Chinese. We never felt threatened and I kept peeping through the windows during the curfew. To put it simply, I knew nothing and remember almost nothing.

It would take me decades – when I was old enough to read the more detailed history books both local and foreign – to get a better understanding of the riots. Since history is not exactly a precise science, it was necessary for me to understand the issue from a wider perspective to be able to pick up the inherent biases of the various writers.

We have to understand that just because they call themselves historians, it does not mean they are always objective.

According to some accounts, for example, the late Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Harun Idris and his followers figured prominently in triggering off the riots.

The Chinese and Indian supporters of the opposition parties that had done well in the general election also went on a post-election victory parade, displaying their arrogance and chanting and displaying racist slogans.

The communists have been fingered too.

It would not be wrong to say that most of the people directly or indirectly involved are dead now. Those in their early adult life then, having experienced that horrible blot in our nation’s history, would be in their 60s and 70s by now.

Yes, most have gone on with their lives. But in Malaysia, the ghost of May 13 remains unburied. It is used as a threat even by some recent groups whose handful of members, if there are any, were not even born then.

Some of the politicians who lived through that era, unfortunately, also fall for the bait and would jump on the bandwagon each time the ghost of May 13 is brought to life.

It doesn’t help when a politician, wanting to show his bravado and his manhood, challenges his opponents to bring May 13 on. Seriously, what is on his mind?

Yes, Malaysians must never forget the incident but we all should move on – and this should have happened long ago.

In South Africa, the end of apartheid has been declared as the Day of Reconciliation, and annually on Dec 16, fostering reconciliation, healing and national unity is the order of the day.

Despite the bitterness of apartheid, where human dignity and justice were trampled upon, no one in South Africa is warning of a return to apartheid.

It is a day where people of all races celebrate the joy of taking the country forward and forgetting and forgiving the mistakes of the past.

Similarly, we should treat May 13 as a day of unity because, despite that tragedy, Malaysia has survived as a nation. We have moved on much more than some politicians like to think.

Older Malaysians may think May 13 is still being discussed in hushed tones and fear. But this is not the case. Most of us can talk about May 13 the same way we discuss many other issues. Out of the 30 million people in the country, those above 65 years now only make up about 5%.

Here’s the rest of the age breakdown: 0 -14 years (29.1%); 15 – 24 years (17%); 25 – 54 years old (41%), and 55 – 64 years (7.4%), according to the Malaysia Demographic Profiles 2013.

The point is this – three quarters of Malaysians were not even born in 1969, so what makes our politicians think that we spend our time warning each other of another racial incident? Yes, race relations have taken a dip but don’t blame the ordinary Malaysians.

The blame goes to bankrupt politicians and mindless netizens who post racist and seditious remarks on news portals and other social media like Facebook.

But the rest of us Malaysians, regardless of our race, religion and culture, share the same Malaysian problem – we talk about Malaysians getting killed daily by mosquitoes. Yes, mosquitoes, and yes, they don’t pick which race to bite.

And while we are having a blood transfusion on the hospital bed, we don’t ask for the race of the donors or the ethnic background of the nurses and doctors because we only want the most competent healthcare.

We also talk a lot about crime where no one is spared, not even top policemen and politicians. They scare us more than the May 13 reminders.

All of us have to cope with the increasing cost of living, loan repayment for the car, tuition fees for the school children and all the bills. It’s the same problem that cuts across all races. Let no politicians tell us differently.

If you live in Selangor, you don’t even know when the next water supply cut will happen. That’s a common headache for all of us. You think we have time to talk about May 13 when we do not even know if there will be water when we want to have a bath?

The majority of Malaysians are moderates and we have all been brought up to be peacemakers.

The moderates may have chosen to remain silent, some out of fear and others because they cannot take the pressure from the more extreme members of their own community. But it is safe to say that Malaysians want to keep this country peaceful.

Malaysians can proudly say that we achieved independence without any real fighting but through negotiations. That’s how we work and that’s how we will keep it.