BLIND LEADING THE BLIND: Time for Malaysians to wisen up....

IT IS time for Malaysians to wise up after so many scams, frauds, and fake news have hit social media.

It's like the blind leading the blind. One reason why Malaysians, including myself, are easy prey for scammers, fraudsters, and fake news creators is because we are simply gullible.

We react to what we read on social media instead of thinking critically. Whatever appeals to our preconceived ideas about the world around us, we are likely to react rather than set aside and ask, "Is there truth in this?"

Counter False Information

When I received this post, I was stunned. But, with the preconceived idea that officials often made all sorts of blunders in the past even in these kinds of announcements, without going to Facebook to check further, I forwarded it to people who needed to know so that any mistake made by RTM could be rectified immediarely.

Thankfully, the response from Fahmi Fadzil, our Minister of Communications, was prompt. He highlighted the words "Rate this translation."

Gosh, I should have noticed it myself, but even I was ‘deceived’ thinking it was yet another blunder by another government agency. Fortunately for me, I have at least weaned myself from sharing it far and wide.

But IMAGINE if I were already disappointed with the local standard of English and the number of blunders that Malaysians make with even simple English, this may become another salvo that could have been fired.

I may be one of a few people like former Radio 4 compere Patrick Teoh who knew him since we were all playing marbles and picture card together.

But, how many people have direct access to him? In the process, I have received a number of similar posts from various people.

This is why I hope that our government can set up a "Check-the-Facts" website to counter all the scams, frauds, and fake news circulating in the news.

At the same time, some of us must slow down on our reaction towards anything that is published on social media. Reforms begin with us, no?

Comments

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