KUALA LUMPUR – Former Klang MP Charles Santiago has called for the individual and production team who made an advertisement video for a pharmacy containing racist elements to issue a public apology.
“The individual should take down the video and apologise. Recognise that the video is insensitive, stereotypical and has racist elements towards the Indian community,” he told Scoop today.
He said the video further reinforces the existing misconception of ethnic Indians and is not helpful for Malaysians to build understanding of different communities in the country.
“They want to make people laugh, but the whole point is they want to bring attention to different things by doing all kinds of stuff.
“They use the existing stereotypes of people by the way they talk. Many Indians don’t talk like that, and neither do Indians wear headgear (like in the video).
“Basically, it’s a one-size-fits-all kind of approach,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sentosa assemblyman Gunaraj George said the individuals involved in the video should apologise and not create racially insensitive content.
“The advertising agency and authorities should relook at the guidelines for all advertising material, whether for social media or media advertisements.”
He also suggested that Malaysians should not behave radically towards one another as it would affect national harmony.
Yesterday, an Instagram user known as @songbill uploaded an insensitive video where an individual was seen portraying himself as an Indian cashier at the pharmacy in an advertisement.
However, the video was taken down as of press time.
Most netizens on X, formerly known as Twitter, reacted negatively about the video, which was later repeatedly reposted.
“Even if he had the Indian accent, it wouldn’t be such a big issue. But use kungumum as a barcode scanner? It’s culture, religion, something we put after praying. Not some f*** barcode scanner. Crazy how creators give dumb*** ideas & the client just simply approves it.”
Meanwhile, X user Raj said: “Not isolated incident, knows what he’s doing, he claims to do it for other ethnicities, while very much exaggerating the Indian one. Fact there’s hundreds of likes is disturbing. It’s always us that’s at the end of the jokes.Target minorities as usual for cheap publicity.”
User Fahmi Hassan called for the company to be reported to the Pharmacy Board for unprofessional behaviour. – October 27, 2023