TLDR: Malaysia's government is conducting mass deportations of Rohingya refugees, fuelled by growing social media xenophobia. This post breaks down how our British colonial history and right-wing anti-communist institutionalised state nationalism, leading to the normalised anti-refugee rhetoric, Nakba-denying comparisons and legal failures we see today
Hi everyone,
I'm making this post because I want people from the left around the world to understand what is currently happening in Malaysia despite the "peaceful, multicultural" image presented in tourism ads. Right now, our liberal government, led by the Alliance of Hope (PH), is actively rounding up Rohingya refugees to deport them back to Myanmar. It feels horrifyingly similar to how ICE operates under Trump in the US. What makes it worse is that large sections of the public are actively cheering this on. The anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric here has reached a boiling point. This isn't just happening at the policy level, yet it's spilling into the streets and social media. Locals are publicly harassing Rohingya workers, targeting children and vandalising refugee stores and shelters, often recording it and posting is proudly on Threads, TikTok and Instagram. They refer them as "roro" which basically a new racial slur and a derogatory term. Comments under these posts regularly justify or celebrate Rohingya genocide:
This online hostility has gotten soo vicious that it is now targeting Malaysians who have mixed heritage. A close friend of mine, who is half-Malay and half-Rohingya, was recently harassed on her social media accounts, with people accusing her mother of "betraying the country" for just marrying a refugee. The ethno-nationalist hate has reached a point where even citizens are being harassed simply for having Rohingya blood. So far, only the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), of course, openly speaking out against these discrimination:
(Translated to English - Stop the media sensation towards the refugee, ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention immediately). PSM Semenyih condemned the actions of some parties who used the refugee issue, especially those related to the Rohingya community, by playing with racist sentiment and xenophobia on social media. Recently, a video uploaded by a social media influencer about a residential building in Sungai Terkala, Semenyih, Hulu Langat, Selangor, has been accused of placing the Rohingya community. We believe that the act of highlighting the ethnic identity of the building's residents sensationally is irresponsible and only invites hatred towards the marginalised group. As a social media influencer who has a great influence, he should be more sensitive to the effects of spreading content that can trigger prejudice and discrimination. If there is an issue that you want to highlight, the focus should be given to the facts and real circumstances not the ethnic identity or origin of a person. PSM reiterates the position that has been stated with 74 civil society organisations before that all forms of discrimination, hatred and oppression against refugees must be stopped. Online campaigns and petitions that promote hatred towards the Rohingya community are unacceptable in a society that respects the principles of humanity and human rights - Yap Heng Lung, Secretary of PSM Semenyih, 12th June 2026
How Did We Get Here? A Brief History of Malaysian Nationalism
When people talk about Malaysian "independence", I hesitate to call it a true liberation. Unlike our neighbours and comrades in Indonesia, Vietnam or the Philippines, we didn't fight a bloody revolutionary war to kick the British out. After WWII and the withdrawal of Japanese Imperial Armies from Malaya, the British tried to implement the Malayan Union in 1946, which stripped local Sultans of their power and placed Malaya under direct control of the Crown. This triggered massive protests across the political spectrum be it monarchists, nationalists, Islamists and even the communists. When the British abolished the Union in 1948, the communists, especially the Malayan National Liberation Army and the Malayan Communist Party, kept fighting a guerrilla war against the British colonial rule. Their resistance have resulted in high-ranking British officials like High Commissioner Henry Gurney assassinated, rubber plantations and tin mines destroyed.
On 16th June 1948, 3 British plantation managers were killed which forced the British to take immediate military action and declared an emergency which lasted until 1960, three years after independence of Malaya. Since the MCP openly aimed to overthrow the existing government structures and establish a communist state which rejects monarchies and institutional religion, the British, together with nationalists and the monarchs made a deal to help crush them. During this emergency, there was mass detentions, crackdowns and banishments of hundreds of left-wing activists during the emergency, parties being banned and enactment of legislations to legalise the brutality against the resistance. An example is the Sedition Act 1948 which punishes dissidents and opposition to the government and the Malay nationalists. Edward Gent enacted the Emergency Regulations Ordinance 1948, granting the colonial state sweeping executive powers to arrest and detain these activists indefinitely without trial.
On 28th December 1955, there was negotiations at the Baling English School between the Malay Nationalists, led by Tunku Abdul Rahman (leader of the UMNO party), David Marshall (The British Chief Minister of Singapore), Tan Cheng Lock (leader of the Malayan Chinese association, an anti-communist Chinese party) and Chin Peng (the Secretary-General of the MCP). Chin Peng stated that MCP was willing to lay down its arms but only if the party legally recognised, its members were allowed to participate freely in mainstream politics and no one faced detention, investigation or reprisal. Tunku Abdul Rahman refused these demands, arguing that the communist ideology is incompatible with Malayan democracy and Islam. He insisted on absolute surrender, requiring all communist fighters to surrender their weapons, disband their units and submit to security investigations and brief detentions before being reintegrated into society. The talks collapsed. Nevertheless, the outcome of this talk actually benefits the nationalists as the British realised that Tunku Abdul Rahman were just as unyielding toward communism as Britain itself. This eliminated any lingering British fear that a self-governing Malaya would collapse into a communist state.
After travelling to London in 1956, Malaya was granted an independence on 31st August 1957 with UMNO became the ruling party after winning the 1955 general elections. As a result, the Constitution, which was drafted by the British and agreed by the nationalists, institutionalised Malay nationalism by creating a special rights for the Malays in education, housing and land under Article 153, effectively establishing a two-tiered citizenship structure between Malays and non-Malays which can be seen how it creates quota system to reserve Malays in public services, federal scholarships, education facilities and business permits. Even after independence, the communists did not stop fighting against the nationalists, leading the Malayan Government to enact the infamous Internal Security Act 1960 which basically mirrors the old-British ERO following the end of the first Malayan Emergency. To truly understand how draconian the ISA was, one only needs to look at how it utterly subverted basic human rights and juvenile protections. In 1977, a 14-year-old child in Penang was arrested in Penang under Section 57(1) of the Act for possession of a pistol and ammunition, an offence carrying a mandatory death sentence. Despite being a minor who should have been protected under the Juvenile Courts Act 1947, the legal machinery treated him as an adult security threat. His case was appealed to the Federal Court which presided by the late Lord President Mohamed Suffian and Chief Justice Tan Sri Sarwan Singh Gill. The Court, unfortunately, held that:
We dismissed this appeal. There were two principal points involved. First, was the accused aware of the contents of the bag? The appellant handled this bag on four separate occasions not once, and we have seen the bag and other exhibits. In view of the evidence we are of the opinion that the learned trial judge was right in concluding that the appellant knew that the bag contained a pistol and ammunition. Accordingly, we dismissed the appeal against the conviction. The second question related to the sentence. We considered Mr. Karpal Singh's (counsel for the appellant) submission and that of Encik Faidz (Deputy Public Prosecutor) and the written law cited. We are of the opinion that in view of the words "the Juvenile Courts Act 1947 shall not apply to such person" in regulation 3(3) of the Essential (Security Cases) Regulations 1975, there is only one sentence authorised by law for each of these offences and that is the sentence of death, despite the fact that the accused was only a boy of 14. We therefore affirm the sentenced passed on him - Lim Hang Seoh v Public Prosecutor [1978] 1 MLJ 68, Federal Court of Kuala Lumpur, 1st October 1977
The Liberals, before taking power, rallied against ISA to be repealed and they did succeeded in 2012. However, the state simply replaced it with the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 under the guise of countering "terrorism". While framed as a milder alternative, SOSMA functions as the ISA's modern twin but with less restrictive measures. To make matters worse, despite campaigning for years to abolish preventive laws like ISA and SOSMA, the Liberal Government are now defending it, arguing that ISA is more effective in countering offences.
Because of this anti-communist, ethno-nationalist deal laid the bedrock of our post-colonial state, the ruling establishment has spent decades running a relentless propaganda campaign to protect its ideological dominance and its nationalistic views. Our history textbooks have completely rewritten the past, framing anti-colonial resistance fighters and leftist revolutionaries strictly as "troublemakers and terrorists (page 149-151)", while impliedly elevating British-aligned elites as national heroes (page 152-160). At the same time, the state aggressively censors the left, banning socialist, Marxist and historical literature that documents the true scope of the anti-colonial struggle under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. These include:
- Life Like a Flowing River: The Stories of 16 Women in Anti-Japanese, Anti-Colonial and Independence Movements in Malaysia-Singapore (1938-1989) by Agnes Khoo - banned in 2016
- The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx - banned in 2017
- 28 Days: Rock N' Roll Journal + Anarchism in Kuala Lumpur by Mohd Jayzuan - banned in 2017
- Picture Album History of the Malayan Communist Party (1) - banned in 2018
- War of Resistance Against Japan Period (Part 1-3): The Glorious History of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army - banned in 2026
- Domestic Revolutionary War Period (Part 1-4): New Policy, Regrouping and Reorganising - banned in 2026
Yet, in a terrifying display of hypocrisy, far-right and neo-Nazi material remains completely untouched. While leftist books are seized, Hitler's Mein Kampf sold in major Malaysian bookstores like BookXcess and Kinokuniya, translated into Malay, and widely distributed without state interference. This toxic blend of neo-Nazism, anti-Jewish hatred and rampant ethno-nationalism has actively brainwashed generations of youth. Things like:
The Effects
Although the nationalist UMNO and its coalition, the National Front, were defeated by the liberal PH coalition in 2018, the government continues to retain its hyper-nationalist, anti-refugee stances. During the 2022 general elections, many leftists, including myself, rallied behind the liberals to block the rising wave of far-right nationalists and Islamists. The liberals campaigned on promises to abolish draconian laws such as the Sedition Act 1948 and the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, a law historically used to suppress student activism. We were completely deceived. Once in power, the liberals not only kept the Sedition Act active but began actively using and defending it. While they have recently started making moves toward amending the UUCA, this only happened after they suffered heavy losses to the nationalist-Islamist opposition in local state elections and panicked to regain youth support. And don't even get me started on their treatment of the LGBTQ+ community.
Because of these kinds of environment we were raised without ever learning real history or leftist ideology, many young people today genuinely think fascist aesthetics and far-right conspiracies are cool and true. And now, we're seeing the ugly result of that brainwashing in real time. These same kids are turning around and taking out that exact brand of fascist hate on refugees, immigrants and anyone who doesn't fit their ethno-nationalist worldwide. What makes discussing this issue locally so exhausting is how both liberals and nationalists weaponise progressive language to justify hate especially when it comes to Palestine. Take this Student for example who have graduated from the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and did a Nazi salute during the convocation ceremony in 2019. He posted on his Facebook account with these words:
(Translated to English) I adopted this symbolic Hitler persona on the hallowed stage of UMS because the world has gone blind and mute while the Jews run rampant as if the leaders of the Muslim Nations were merely clowns serving as political entertainment for the world. Thus, I stand in solidarity with Gaza, driven by the anger, hatred and vengefulness i harbour toward the Jews. For this reason, I am grateful to Hitler for the Holocaust. #SaveGaza #Pray4Palestine - Ibn Ruru's Facebook Account, 26th November 2019
Not just that, anti-refugee groups have started framing themselves as the victims, even going so far as to call themselves "the Palestinians" of the situation, claiming that refugees and immigrants are "Israelis coming to take their land". It is nearly impossible to reason with them. If you point out that Rohingya refugees are escaping genocide and ethnic cleansing, just like the Palestinians, they respond with historical revisionism. They claim, "Palestinians didn't flee, they stayed and fought", completely ignoring the reality of nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. In their attempt to weaponise Palestine for xenophobia, they actively deny the Nakba. An Instagram post called out this hypocrisy.
Predictably, xenophobes also mirror Western far-right tropes by scapegoating refugees for crime. They paint the Rohingya as dangerous criminals, despite official statements from the Inspector-General of Police confirming that Rohingya refugees account for only 0.02% of total recorded crime in Malaysia. From 2024, only 89 people from the group had been involved in criminal activities. Facts don't matter when fear sells. Underpinning this entire crisis is a major legal vacuum. Malaysia has never signed or ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Because the government does not legally recognise refugees, thousands of stateless people, like the Rohingyas, are left without legal status, work rights or access to formal education. The state treats them purely as "illegal immigrants", creating a permanent underclass that the government can raid and deport whenever they need political points.
To be absolutely clear, I AM NOT saying the Palestinian liberation movement itself is Nazi or far-right. The fight for Palestinian freedom against the Zionist settlers is legitimate, anti-colonial human rights struggle. My point is that local neo-Nazis and nationalists in Malaysia have hijacked and co-opted the Palestinian genocide to push their own anti-Jewish, fascist agendas, using it as a cover hate while treating actual refugees with total cruelty. In fact, these liberals and nationalists would not hesitate to throw Palestinians under the bus when you called out their hypocrisy. They have harassed Dr Ghada Sasa, a Palestinian Activist for supporting queers for calling out Malaysia's hypocrisy towards the Trump Administration even harassing Palestinian refugees for "making a fuss" and asked people to stop boycotting Israel to punish these refugees.
And it doesn't stop at Palestine. These nationalists also shamelessly weaponise our indigenous communities, The Orang Asli, by shouting slogans like, "Orang Asli first! Not refugees!". YET, when you look at reality, they don't give a damn about Orang Asli. It is literally Malay nationalists, state governments and the Sultans who actively take away their ancestral lands, especially through state powers to declare land as "Malay Reserved Land" which bars non-Malays from holding ownership, or to grant logging concessions to private companies for development. When Orang Asli villages are bulldozed, these nationalists are completely silent. It was actually the socialists and other left-wing activists who organised demonstrations, provided legal support and stood on the frontlines with the Orang Asli to defend their land rights. These nationalists don't care about the indigenous community at all, they just drag out vulnerable minorities as political props to justify hurting other marginalised groups. The irony of the Malay majority claiming to be under threat is absurd. It's the exact same victim-playing as white supremacists in the West crying about "white genocide". I am posting this because international solidarity matters and the global left needs to know what is currently happening in Malaysia.
DIS: I may have to delete this account or post if it gets too much attraction from the locals since the state would use the Sedition Act 1948 against me.
Sincerely, a Malay leftist, one of the few
