Palatao Comments

Update: A day after, I left another WhatsApp group that had somebody commenting rather insensitively on the doctors' plight. This time, it was an alumni group; my other half even resented the remarks and was surprised such 'educated' group can have such remarks. I do not know personally those who made the insensitive comments in both groups and hence rather not get involved in arguing with them. Egos tend to get in the way usually unless we know each other and where we are coming from. The easiest option is to leave the group (though for the surau group, I felt a bit sad to leave it) and have my peace of mind.

Palatao is a word invented to refer to those who thinks they know everything and made comments in the social media that are often negative and false. It has now been included in the urban dictionary (just like the word koyak).

I normally tend to ignore posts made by such people in this category unless the matter is personally directed to me or in some cases on matters directly related to things I'm deeply concerned with. Some posts propagate stereotypes, divisiveness and some even caused gross injustice. The last one troubles me most, as any sane person should. Normally, when I come across such people, I will try to distance myself and let them drown in their own foolishness. I do pray that such people should not be given any critical responsible roles since they are incapable of thinking about others.

Yesterday happens to be one such instance and it happen right in my local surau community. The post can be seen below, conversation between two persons in the local whatsapp group. The comment made against doctors are really disappointing, insensitive and I'm pretty sure that the person is not aware of the current predicament that doctors are facing. The whatsapp group should only be concerned about matters pertaining to the surau. In the past, there are individuals who stir up heated discussions by posting political issues in the whatsapp group but they tend to get warned by the admin of the group. If they need to discuss on matters not pertaining to the surau, they can create a different group to do so. I do not know the persons who made these remarks but I certainly do not want to mix with such persons and thus I left the group. I hope the admin of the surau whatsapp group will take note of the displeasure of others when such comments are allowed.

I was told that another person left after I did. Later some doctors in the group tried to explain what is going on but I heard that the person did not apologise or retract his comments. I sincerely hope that he will eat his words one day.