Malaysian mothers to children of foreign fathers have long battled the Malaysian authorities to allow their children citizenship into the country.
And while they may finally be winning this battle as months ago, the Cabinet had agreed to making amendments on automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers, there is another battle to be won against racism.
Saksi took to their Twitter page to call out a local newspaper for their racist depiction of an African father to a half-Malaysian child.
They wrote, “The way non-Malaysians, women and children are depicted in this cartoon by a respected media source is appalling. We urge readers to reject this type of racist and misogynist propaganda and to get their information on this issue from sources such as Family Frontiers instead.”
The newspaper had written a piece titled ‘The majority of people support the amendment of the Constitution so that children of Malaysian mothers can get citizenship’ and inserted single-panel comic with a racist caricature of an African father and son, alongside his Malay wife.
What makes it worse is that, in the comic, the wife uses the N-word as the wife called her African husband ‘her N-word’.
“The choice of imagery used when the crux of the article is on how most Malaysians support #pindaperkara14 is concerning and we should not accept this in our local media.”
Many have since agreed to this, calling out the blatant ignorance showcased in the comic
Considering the fact that we’re living in 2023, perhaps it’s time to leave such racial depictions of people in the past where they belong.
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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