Ever notice that whenever a tragedy like this happens, folks are always waiting to see the race of the perpetrator and victim?

Then there is a sigh of relief when you discover that the perpetrator was not from your community, and this time, collective blame would not be assigned to your community.

Of course, there are always people from your community who, for whatever reasons, will mimic racist narratives, which merely enables the prejudices endemic to the state, but that is a topic for another time.

Whenever any kind of violence is brought upon the majority community by minorities, everyone tenses up because even if it is an accident, we know that the issue will be portrayed as a racial issue.

And whenever violence is brought upon a minority community by the majority, false equivalencies are the talking points of the day.

I read all these think pieces pleading for some systemic reform whose impetus is the death of Amirul Hafiz Omar, thereby attempting to take race out of the equation.

Meanwhile, this is manna from heaven for race and religion political operatives to detract from their political failings and depraved indifference to the community they constantly tell us they are champions for.

Tragedies used to advance agendas

Transport Minister Anthony Loke is told to do something, and he dutifully does. Of course, nobody told him to do something for the hundreds of deaths that occur during festive periods. This is what president Zaly Shah of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Malaysia reportedly said:

“An average of 18 people a day die in road accidents, but statistics I have seen show that accidents involving drunk drivers are small, isolated, and seasonal. When one happens, another may follow, but when it doesn’t occur, it doesn’t happen at all.

“Careless driving due to environmental factors, rain, and infrastructure issues such as potholes contributes more compared to drunken drivers.”

And PKR Youth was reported as insisting “that local governments introduce ‘dram shop liability’, which would hold operators legally accountable if they ‘over-serve’ customers, as a new clause in business licences for premises selling alcohol.”

Where was the outcry for bus drivers or boat drivers who caused deaths while under the influence or municipal malfeasances and corruption, which have led to deaths?

Look, all this is a matter of public record and yes, even the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims. Did we see the same outrage from the state or society when the victims were minorities?

The recent accident in Segamat, Johor, demonstrates the differing standards and attitudes of both political operatives and the hoi polloi.

Forget about the legalese for a moment. Forget about race for a moment. Every day, we witness Malaysians driving recklessly.

Do you think any of them wanted to murder anyone? Do you think when an accident happens, either through negligence or recklessness, that those folks thought today is a good day to murder someone?

Lawyer Eric Paulsen has the right of it when he says, “Swerving onto the opposite lane is ordinarily treated as recklessness or dangerous driving, not as an act so imminently dangerous that death must in all probability follow.

“To hold otherwise would mean that most, if not all, deaths caused by a vehicle crossing into oncoming traffic would now warrant a murder charge. That cannot be the state of the law.”

Why don’t we just throw away all legal provisions when it comes to negligence, or mistakes, or impaired judgment? Or better yet, why not add a constitutional amendment that says those laws do not apply when it comes to a specific demographic?

After all, privileging one community over others and weaponising tragedies are desiderata of supremacist ideologies.