“We are Malaysians. We don’t see colour.”
On 11th July, a brawl broke out at Low Yat Plaza when a group of youth barged into the mall and caused a fiasco in a smartphone store to seek revenge against the sales clerks who caught them shoplifting and turned them over to the police.
Various reports confirmed that the thugs entered the shop at 7:50pm and began smashing the glass display, flipping over cabinets, and smashing phones and other electronic products. The sales clerks tried to stop them, but ended up in an all-out brawl on the ground floor of the shopping mall.
Following which, a disturbance broke out at the mall on the next day (Sunday, 12th July) when a group of “protestors” gathered to “get proper justice”. Police managed to disperse the crowd in the nick of time, but that didn’t stop another disturbance from breaking out. A total of 5 people, including media personnel, were reportedly injured in fistfights between members of both groups that night as helmets and other items were thrown at each other.
It resulted in a horrifying weekend for Malaysians.
It’s business as usual at Low Yat Plaza but ever since then, racial tension in the country has been on an all-time high as accusations were thrown about on social media about the races that were involved in the initial Low Yat Plaza mall fiasco. To us and to many other Malaysians, it’s disturbing – because this is our home, after all.
And you can be damn well sure that there’s enough space for all of us here.
Recently, a movement was created in support of all the people in our country, regardless race or walks of life. The movement, “No Colournation”, was started simply because there has been too much negativity and racism on social media feeds lately, stemming fom the Low Yat Plaza mall incidents.
We got in touch with Alexis Fernandez, a Creative Director and one of the people behind the movement, and he said that “No Colournation” is a personal project of his and a couple of other people. Together, what they’re striving to do is to be the positive change that Malaysians need, starting with creating an awareness via this social media-driven message.
No brand, no marketing, and definitely no gimmick.
The description of the Facebook page reads as such:
A while back, people have started changing their profile pictures into rainbows to show support for a legislation that was passed in America. But what about the rights of the people in our country? #nocolournation does not just fight for one cause. Nor does it stand up for just one race. It supports all the people in our country; whatever skin colour they have.
Of course, to make a change and spread positivity, they need as much help as they can.
So, how you can support the cause?
This-a-way:
- Go here and change your profile picture to black and white.
- Share it with the hashtag #nocolournation.
- And you’re done.
Malaysians are our people, it’s what we are, and this is our home too. So stand for Malaysians and for our home.
Let’s all go colourblind. Let’s be a part of #NOCOLOURNATION.
After all, we don’t see colour in Malaysia 🙂
For more information, visit the “No Colournation” Facebook page.
