If Malaysians just stop being so easily offended, then politicians can't exploit a slew of contentious issues to divide and rule the country, activists and NGO leaders asserted at a forum yesterday.

Sisters in Islam founder Zainah Anwar pointed to this as the source of hatred that justified the government's often slippery defence of issues such as the ban on ‘Allah’ for non-Muslims, linking protests to racial riots, and more.

"We face a problem with right-wing voices," Zainah said to a crowd of 300 in a packed hall at the Royal Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur.

"There is political value to publicly claim that you are offended, and there is reward - you get a meeting with the home minister, the government adopts your decision."

She was speaking at a forum held in conjunction with the launch of retired Navy commander S Thayaparan's book ‘No Country for Righteous Men and Other Essays on Culture of Offendedness’.

Such "offendedness" undermined even the prime minister's own 1Malaysia agenda as it serves to demonise others who are different from you, Zainah said, adding that the solution is then for the people to push for more decisive leaders who are not afraid to take a stand.

"Our politicians have to take leadership but they don’t - they are pandering to the gallery. They feel that they can gain by using race and religion," she lamented.

Alternative views needed

Other speakers were associate professor at University Malaya Law Faculty Azmi Sharom, news portal The Malaysian Insider editor Jahabar Sadiq, and former Bar Council chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan.

Being fans of the Thayaparan book , which is a collection of his essays for Malaysiakini from 2011 to 2013, the speakers also agreed that more alternative views and open discourses can help Malaysians resolve the many issues confronting the country.

Pointing out those institutions which upheld a "Malaysian" society were broken after the rule of the first three prime ministers, Azmi ( left ) laid the blame on the silent majority.

"We let it happen and now we are bearing the bitter fruit. The first three prime ministers had some semblance of an understanding of democracy because they were all lawyers by training. Then came the fourth... and we let him run wild all in the name of economic progress,"Azmi said, to laughter from the audience.

"I don't think this country is a basket case. Not yet. But an institutional revolution must happen, so that there will be alternative voices in the discourse."

Meanwhile, Jahabar ( left ) described Malaysia as "a country of many bubbles."

"We drink from the same kool-aid, affirm each other’s opinions, and it dies there," he said.

"We are already one country, we are Malaysians - only we don't realise it because we just keep within our own bubbles. We have got to start thinking as Malaysians," he pleaded.

Double standards

Another speaker, former Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga noted that racism and attacks against the Chinese and Christian minorities have increased in an unprecedented way since the 13th general election last year.

Ambiga ( right ) pointed out that Malaysia kept double standards - one for its international standing and another for domestic politics - by using the "exceptionalism" argument, referring to the article written by Malaysiakini columnist and former civil servant KJ John, who was the moderator of the forum.

"We cannot have have racism anywhere else in the world - we are the first to fight apartheid in Africa - but here it is allowed,” she said.

She slammed the government for championing human rights elsewhere through its position in the United Nations' Human Rights Council but easily let it slip in Malaysia.

"There are classes of people who can walk the street and do what they want and nobody can touch them,"Ambiga decried. "They try to shut people up. That's the one thing we can never give in to."

In answering the question posed by the moderator, "Can Malaysia be 1Bangsa Malaysia?", Ambiga answered tersely, "Yes, I saw it at Bersih (rallies)."