Chong Wei smashes hate, rallies public to unity

Retired national shuttler Lee Chong Wei took to Facebook to smash divisive issues in an effort to rally public unity ahead of Merdeka Day celebrations tomorrow.

Lee said he had been avoiding social media as he was upset by friends and fans "shooting vulgarities" at each other over petty issues.

"This is not the Malaysia I fought for," he said.

He then told of how Malaysians of all races supported him during his match against China's Lin Dan at the 2006 Malaysian Open finals.

He also related how "someone" said five years ago that Chinese Malaysians would support Lin if the latter had a match with Lee's former coach Misbun Sidek.

"First and foremost, who are you to say this when faith and loyalty shouldn’t be your forte.

"Second of all, as a Malaysian who knows both players, of course I support Misbun. Misbun is my countryman, Lin is not. (If) Misbun won, my country (would be) happy, everyone (would be) happy, maybe there will be a holiday.

"If Lin won, ape gua dapat (what would I get)?" Lee wrote.

While he did not name who had made the Lin-Misbun remarks, this is believed to refer to preacher Ridhuan Tee Abdullah.

Tee, in a 2014 piece in Sinar Harian, said Chinese Malaysians should not pretend to love Malaysia if they vote for "ultra kiasu" - a reference to DAP - just as they would support Lin over Misbun or Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat.

Lee in his posting today, said Malaysians should not be divided by "one random voice", before commenting on more recent issues such as heated arguments over the introduction of Jawi khat in the Bahasa Malaysia school syllabus.

"Don’t let petty issues like Dong Zong or khat tear us apart. Don’t let a small group of people spreading racial hate to beat us.

"Don’t let insensitive people pull our nose out of our sanity, Don’t let the evil people - regardless if they are Chinese, Indians and Malays - defeat our country, our people.

"Malaysians are much much bigger than this. Show that we are stronger than all this nonsense," he said.