06/01/2026

TUESDAY | JAN 6, 2026

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Malaysia’s original fact-checker O NCE upon a time, Makcik Bawang was framed as the neighbourhood menace – the one who knew everyone’s Bawang has not. She has screenshots, links and the exact time-stamp of when you contradicted yourself, and she will drop it into the comment section with a polite but devastating “ Eh bukankah dulu you kata lain ?” conferences are over. And crucially, she speaks in the language of the rakyat – blunt, sarcastic, occasionally savage but never detached. When elites dismiss public frustration as “noise”, Makcik Bawang hears data. A R I N A T E D M A K C I K

often sharper than policy papers.

is always right. He has repeatedly said that Canada should be annexed. He has not ruled out the use of force to take over Greenland for its mineral riches. He has insisted that “sooner or later” it will be part of the US. These are Nato countries (Greenland is part of Denmark). His weird threats against his neighbours and allies could have been dismissed as the ramblings of a demented man-child or sarcastic asides from a diplomatic disruptor. But they are no joke. For all his lies and bluster, Trump makes good on his threats and ambitions. His fantasy of turning Gaza into a Gaz-a-Lago seaside resort may yet be manifest. His National Security Strategy says that four Nato nations are soon to be overwhelmed by “non-Europeans”. Aside from being a racist trope from “Great Replacement” conspiracy theorists (latter-day Nazis), it is also flat wrong. But he now sees the world in three spheres: the Western hemisphere is his to control; Russia can have Europe; and China the rest. This is the moment when it is now clear that, as Yeats wrote in “The Second Coming”, “the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”. And the leaders of the West should heed what happens when a “blood-dimmed tide is loosed” – it happens when “the best lack all conviction”. This is the moment that Europe needs to stand up – but it will stay sitting down as the bloody tide rises around its ankles. Sam Kiley is the world affairs editor of The Independent. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com So, yes, let her talk, let her type, let her lempang – metaphorically, of course. Because a Malaysia without Makcik Bawang would be quieter and far more dangerous. Now pass the bawang . We are not done cooking yet. Azura Abas is the associate editor of theSun. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com Not perfect but necessary Of course, let’s not romanticise too much; Makcik Bawang can get carried away too – sometimes she forwards before verifying and sometimes the lempang comes before the listening. But here is the thing: she reacts because she cares. Apathy is quieter; it doesn’t comment. Apathy scrolls past injustice and says, “ Malas-lah ”. Makcik Bawang cannot because silence to her feels like complicity. So, next time you see a “noisy” comment… pause. That comment may be messy, it may be sarcastic and it may come with three laughing emojis and one typo but embedded in it could be a truth shaped by lived experience, economic pressure and years of being told to “ sabar ”. Makcik Bawang is not the problem; she is a smoke detector – loud, irritating, impossible to ignore and usually screaming because something is burning.

business before WhatsApp – who could smell scandal faster than kari leaves hitting hot oil. Today? She’s been upgraded, rebranded and digitised – soft-launched into a national conscience, like an unpaid ombudsman with unlimited data. In modern Malaysia, Makcik Bawang is no longer just the auntie at the kedai runcit ; she is everywhere: Facebook comment sections, TikTok stitch videos, X (formerly Twitter, because we are still petty about that rename), Telegram groups and family WhatsApp chats named “ Keluarga Harmoni (No Politik )” – which, of course, is 90% politics. And before anyone rolls their eyes and says, “ Alaaa , gossip only what”, let’s be clear: Makcik Bawang is not gossip; Makcik Bawang is a social surveillance with sambal belacan . Unofficial fact-checker (with receipts) In a country where official statements sometimes arrive already reheated and under-seasoned, Makcik Bawang fills the gaps. She cross-checks. She compares. She remembers what you said last year, two ministers ago, three U-turns back. You may have forgotten your manifesto promises but Makcik AMERICAN Chinook aircraft and Apache gunship escorts clattered through the night sky over Caracas, which was splashed orange with explosions as missiles attacked military sites across the country. A few hours later, President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been “captured” and flown out of their country. High fives, no doubt, in the Oval Office – and more praise poems for Trump from his henchpeople, like Peter Hegseth, the secretary for defence/war, who puts more effort into public pull-ups than he does operational security, let alone strategic thought. What no one in the White House can see is that this invasion, this apparent political decapitation, this violation of international law, is strategically mad. Outside the White House and Magaland, the only cheering will be in the Kremlin and in Beijing. In Nato there will be horror. But one can be sure that the supine grovelling that has characterised the behaviour of Nato’s leadership towards Trump and Hegseth will continue. Doing otherwise would be to acknowledge that Donald Trump has swung America first from being a friend, then to being an unreliable ally, and now, in the dawn of 2026, Trump’s America is a threat. He said he would attack Venezuela’s mainland, and he has. His claim to be knocking over a narco-terrorist state that has COMMENT by Sam Kiley

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That, my friends, is not gossip; that is accountability with a side of cili padi . From dapur to digital: The evolution arc The traditional Makcik Bawang operated from the dapur , surau corridors, school gates and funeral tents. Information travelled via whispered updates while wrapping kuih or waiting for nasi lemak to sell out. Today’s Makcik Bawang ? She operates from her sofa, phone on silent, tea in hand and multitasking between frying ikan and frying nonsense online. She has evolved, from “I heard ah …” to “According to this court document…” The modern Makcik Bawang doesn’t just speculate; she annotates. Why Makcik Bawang terrifies the powerful?

The gendered sneer (let’s talk about it) Notice something interesting? We don’t call men Pakcik Bawang with the same venom. Men rant but they are “concerned citizens”. Women comment yet suddenly it’s “emotional”, “ kay poh ” or “annoying”. Classic. Labelling women as Makcik Bawang has long been a way to trivialise their observations. But here’s the twist: the label backfired. Makcik Bawang reclaimed it, polished it and weaponised it – with humour, sass and precision timing. If she laughs while exposing nonsense, that is not weakness; it is confidence. The moral compass wrapped in sarcasm Despite the jokes, Makcik Bawang is deeply values-driven. She may roast you today but she also knows when to draw the line. She defends the makcik whose stall was demolished without warning, the student blamed for systemic failure and the worker told to “be grateful” while being underpaid. She doesn’t use jargon; she uses instinct. And instinct in this country is

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“In a country where official statements sometimes arrive already reheated and under seasoned, Makcik Bawang fills the gaps. She cross-checks. She compares. She

Because Makcik Bawang cannot be PR managed. You can hire consultants, issue statements and release glossy infographics but you cannot gaslight someone who raised three children, survived GST, SST, fuel hikes, school PIBG drama and still remembers how much sugar used to cost in 1998. Makcik Bawang sees patterns – she smells nonsense before press The moment Donald Trump unleashed anarchy remembers what you said last year, two ministers ago, three U-turns back.

Protesters hold placards during a demonstration condemning the US attack on Venezuela and the seizure of Maduro, in front of the US embassy in Seoul yesterday. – AFPPIC

oppressed in that country. The Kremlin wants to take over all of its neighbour, and Trump is supporting its efforts to carve out the 20% it has already captured. In his new year’s speech, China’s leader Xi Jinping renewed threats against Taiwan, saying: “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.” And China held massive war games off the coast of Taiwan at the same time. In the age of Trump, the “trend of the times” is that might

laws to hunt down alleged terrorists. Now, Trump has attacked a neighbour without any international support. He has aped the behaviour of his great hero and friend, Vladimir Putin. He has also, like Putin, politicised the military and intelligence services, tried to shatter judicial independence and feathered the nests of select oligarchs. The Russian president invaded Ukraine in 2014. He falsely claimed that Russian speakers were being

exported vast quantities of opiates to the US and killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens is nonsense. Opiates get into the US from Mexico, not Venezuela. As a premise for regime change and invasion, it is as false as the claims that Saddam Hussein was making a nuclear weapon. The invasion of that nation set off decades of pain and murder, terror and mayhem, and gave birth to Isis. It also tore at the fabric of Western democracies, as some ripped up ethics and their own