Malaysians must not allow extremists to turn Malaysia into a deeply polarised nation through unchecked dissemination of irresponsible and incendiary fake news and hate speech, creating deep divisions in the country and corroding basic political institutions, fuelling societal anger, ultimately endangering democracy and the nation itself.

Recently, there have been many examples of such irresponsible and inflammable fake news and hate speech in multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia.

The most recent instance was the speech by a Penang State UMNO leader and
Barisan Nasional Penang State Secretary, Datuk Omar Faudzar at the UMNO General Assembly accusing the DAP of importing “phantom voters” from China to obtain more numbers through Chinese nationals.

He told the UMNO General Assembly that if 5,000 of the Chinese nationals are placed in each of the Parliamentary constituencies, “all of our MPs will be wiped out”.

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