YOURSAY | 'The Seri Iskandar Archery Club shot itself in the foot.'

Missing the mark, archery club apologises to Econsave

Fair Play: The biggest problem facing extremists of any faith or community is that sooner rather than later, they will run out of narratives to hold their faithful together or to remain relevant to their community.

So, what do they need to do? Manufacture ‘believable’ narratives.

The Seri Iskandar Archery Club antic is a clear example of ‘holier than thou’ individuals or groups who need to create a narrative to protect their community, and now they have to eat their words.

In a much larger picture, I often wonder why the largest community in the nation, with so many immutable articles in the Federal Constitution to protect their special position, language, religion and the royalty, is still afraid of their shadow in broad daylight.

What is even more staggering is that the other communities never even question the constitution.

In fact, it is the minority communities who feel threatened time and again by those who appear by their actions to impinge on their immutable rights as enshrined in the constitution.

GalaxyM: What has happened to the country where some people belonging to the majority community are doing nothing except trying to tear apart the already highly polarised multi-ethnic and multi-religion nation?

Sixty-two years after Merdeka, there is hardly any sign of unity among the people, but there are plenty of fake news, wild and baseless accusations against non-Malay politicians and retail business chains.

Vijay47: Over the last few months, we have seen that many Malay-Muslim fanatical groups have come out with some false statement that non-Muslims have somehow caused them great offence or injustice.

When they are asked to substantiate their allegations, they cowardly say that they were misunderstood, and sheepishly withdraw, only to emerge soon enough with another pack of unfounded charges.

What makes this particularly dangerous is that this is occurring with increasing frequency, and worse, is always related to race and religion.

We now witness the ridiculous spectacle of an archery club rushing to tilt at imaginary windmills.

The police, on their part, seem totally indifferent to such deadly trends.

Imagine what the response would be had the shoe been on the other foot, with a non-Malay group claiming failings by Malay organisations.

It is good that Econsave has only conditionally accepted the club’s apology, demanding that all Facebook postings on the issue be removed.

If the archery club is, as expected, unable to achieve this Herculean task, then the supermarket should proceed to sue the Seri Iskandar Club. This would discourage other fanatics from adopting similar stunts.

It seems beyond these groups to realise that if Malay or other products were of quality, every store would be rushing to stock them.

Kneazle: A senseless accusation with unnecessary consequences.

My favourite nasi lemak stall at the weekend market located in a 95 percent Chinese community has suffered tremendously since the ‘buy Malay’ campaign started.

For two consecutive weeks, she hardly had more than 10 customers (I still patronise her stall, however).

If this continues, makcik may have to close or shift elsewhere, despite selling at this location for the past six years.

The sole Malay satay stall at the coffee shop has stopped selling as customers boycotted it. This is the result of being racial on every issue.

Pakatan Harapan, especially Bersatu, should do something and stop trying to outdo the Islamist Umno-PAS.

Kepala Tak Centre: Since when did an archery club become a Malay-Muslim NGO?

B H Yap: Archery clubs should not be involved in calling for commercial boycotts.

They open themselves to being hijacked by people with ulterior motives, as in this case, where damage is already done. Instead of concentrating on archery, it is now run by bigots and racists.

Anonymous 2465861491622056: Indeed, what has an archery club got to do with how a supermarket is run?

As this is a political statement, the Registrar of Societies should check whether the archery club has broken its rules, and therefore be given a stern warning.

This incident clearly shows the ignorance of people, reflecting on the quality of our education system.

Appum: Instead of 'hit and run', it is a case of 'shoot and run'.

Hmmmmmmmm: Isn't an archery club under the purview of the sports minister?

He seems to have something to say about other people's ministries, but is very quiet when it actually involves his ministry.

Is he going to take action against the archery club or is he going to invite that particular officer over for dinner, and then tell everybody to move on?

Anon Two: If they could learn to boikot corruption, they will be much better people.

Anonymous 2461751489476085: Do you see the pattern of how hate speech is being propagated in this country?

These hate mongers think that a subsequent apology will be sufficient to appease everyone. But the damage has been done.

I implore the authorities to clamp down hard without fear or favour on those spitting out hate speech.

Shovelnose: If you don't take punitive action against them, it will send a message to the rest that such reckless accusations are acceptable and without implications.

Headhunter: They should stick to archery instead of wasting time telling lies that cause others to suffer. If not for the threat of being sued, they probably would not apologise.

You can blame it on a government that cannot grow a spine, even when the rakyat gave them the mandate to do it. That's why the fanatics are having a field day.

FairMalaysian: Yes, something is wrong with this government. Instead of nipping this in the bud, it has allowed extremists to get out of hand.

All those who are posting these extreme views want the Harapan government to fall and want Umno and PAS to be in Putrajaya.

Instead of Econsave, it is the government that should be taking these 'archers' to court. Clearly, what they wrote is a lie to incite people.

How long this government is going to wait? Until it falls?

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