The Era Fm Dj S Thaipusam Fiasco Might Originally Be An Accident But It Has The Potential Of Turning Into A Disaster

---

Personally, I believe the Thaipusam Kavadi fiasco that involved a trio of Era FM DJ’s was an “accident”. What I mean by an accident is that like a traffic accident, it is a negative event that occurred without anyone having any ill intentions.
I think what happened was that the ERA FM DJ’s were just brainstorming to come out with content that would justify their pay check. They probably tried a lot of things that didn’t work, until Azad Jasmin, one of the DJ’s, did a Kavadi joke, and managed to elicit a response from everyone who saw him perform it.
Thinking they had content that might get them a lot of views, ERA FM then decided to publish the video, without realising how others, especially Indians, might view it.
Azad Jasmin is half Indian. His father was an Indian who converted to Islam. Considering that, I think it is plausible to assume that Azad likely has many Indian relatives and friends, who he spends a lot of time with.
To be honest, this sort of Kavadi jokes that Azad did is not something that an Indian might not have done amongst their friends and relatives. To tell you the truth, I actually have seen this type of joke being done amongst my own friends and relatives countless times.
Back when I was younger, my buddies and I, who were all Indians, even had this recurring joke, where someone would chant “What is the biggest mammal in the ocean?” before everybody else will reply “Whale , Whale” ( a pun on vel, vel, which is chanted during Thaipusam, and the act which got the Era FM DJ’s in hot water), but this didn’t offend anyone, because we all identified as Indians and were performing the joke for our own entertainment.
It was just assumed that we were not ridiculing anyone with what we did, because we ourselves identified with the culture we were making fun of. Obviously, we were not ridiculing it, because ridiculing it would mean that we are ridiculing ourselves.
Azad however, might have Indian blood, Indian friends and Indian relatives, and he might have made such jokes with his Indian relatives and buddies or watched such jokes being made by his Indian relatives and friends in the past, but the fact that he was performing the joke in ERA FM, which is not an Indian radio station catering to Indians, but a Malay radio station catering to Malays, and the fact that he was too confident that his “half Indian blood” gave him the “licence” to make fun of the Indian culture, just as how he had seen his “full blooded” Indian friends and relatives making fun of the Indian culture, is what might have caused this “accident” to happen.
Now you might be thinking, well, that explains why Azad made the joke, but the fact that the rest of the people who were watching it laughed at the joke meant there was an intention to ridicule and mock Thaipusam and Indians, but to this, I also have an alternative explanation to explain it.
You see, what we find funny tends to be what we find risky or dangerous. If you look at stand up comedy performances for example, most of what a stand-up comedian will say to elicit laughter from their audience will have an element of risk or danger to it.  It is jokes that challenge the accepted norms – like the ones about fighting a child or competing with an handicapped person that will generate laughter, simply because it is this sort of subject that challenges our perception of what is normal, that will cause us to break out into laughter.
As Malaysians, we are conditioned to not treat the racial or religious features of another identity group disrespectfully from young, so when we see someone making fun of their own race, in a way that we have conditioned ourselves not to do, we might respond to it by laughing.
The problem with the Era FM Dj’s stunt is that while we Indian were viewing Azad as a non-Indian who was ridiculing us for the entertainment of another race, the people who were laughing in the studio when Azad was performing his antics probably saw him as an Indian who was acting as a comic.
This discrepancy in our outlook, is what caused an “accident” to occur, where a lot of people got hurt, although there was likely no bad intentions involved.
Now usually, when we are involved in an “accident” where no ill intention is involved, all that is required for us to resolve the matter is say we are sorry, and perhaps pay some restitution if the other party incurred any losses, and the matter would be put to rest.
However, in the case of the ERA FM’S DJ, their apology has not been able to put to rest the matter, simply because we, meaning the Indians, are assuming that their apology is not sincere.
The reason we are assuming their apology as not sincere, is because we are assuming that their action was done with ill intention, while they are apologizing with the view that their action, though wrong, was not done with ill intention.
Part of the reason why we are refusing to accept their apology is as explained above, but there is also another part – and this part has to do with issues that are not related to the ERA FM DJ’s antics.
In other words, we, the Indians, as well as the non-Muslims by large, might be conflating what the ERA FM DJ’s did, with a whole host of other events, like the KK MART socks fiasco or the KK MART Halal Ham fiasco or the Zakir Naik Gag Order controversy, and thus are evaluating what the ERA FM DJ’s did, not as an event by itself, but as a part of a series of incidents that where we feel that we have been treated in an unfair and disrespectful manner.
In contrast, the  Malay Muslims are seeing our refusal to accept what they see as a sincere and  magnanimous gesture by the ERA FM DJ’s, to humble themselves and apologise to us although they had no ill intention in doing what they did, as a sign that we might be using the incident to pick on their faults.
Seeing it so, now there is a pushback from the Malay Muslims community who are now calling on the ERA FM DJ’s to stop apologising, less their continuous apology infringes on the self respect and dignity of the Malay Muslim community as a whole.
To make matters worse, the Islamic Preacher Zamri Vinoth and MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan have now jumped into the fray, and turned what was hitherto an accident, to potentially become a full scale disaster.
At this stage, if you were to ask me, what can be done to prevent this episode from worsening to a point of no return, I must say that honestly, I am not sure that it can be done.
Sometimes, I think that when things are fated to happen, they will happen, and there is nothing that anyone can do to prevent it from happening.
Malaysia has a problem with racial and religious tension, and the problem has been escalating for a while.
This Era FM DJ’s Kavadi fiasco, is but a manifestation of the escalating problem – even if it did not happen, something else would have likely happened to escalate the racial and religious tension that we are facing in the country.
We don’t know how much the planned Saravanan vs. Zamri Vinoth debate is going to worsen the situation, but I am 100 percent sure that it will undoubtedly worsen the situation, regardless of whether it goes on as planned or is cancelled.
While I don’t believe the Saravanan vs Zamri Vinoth debate will by itself push the tension to a point of no return, but I do believe that it will push the tension closer to a point of no return, just as how the previous events, like the KK Mart Socks fiasco and the ongoing ERA FM DJ fiasco, has pushed the tension closer to a point of no return.
I don’t think that our government can do anything to stop the racial and religious tension in our country from worsening, because I actually think that it is the short sightedness and misguided handling of the previous events by our government that has resulted in the racial and religious tension to continue to escalate up to a point where even a rather petty incident involving a trio of radio DJ’s, is now capable of causing a full scale disaster.
If there is anything that can be done to prevent a full scale disaster, which we know lies ahead, going by signs that we have seen so far, it will depend on how much we can broaden our mind, and see the unfolding events, not only from our own viewpoint, but from a larger viewpoint.
This article itself is an attempt to provide that larger viewpoint. Let us see whether it will be enough to make a dent.
Fingers crossed.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
The post The ERA FM DJ’s Thaipusam fiasco might originally be an accident, but it has the potential of turning into a disaster appeared first on Malaysia Today.

---