Awie MBR’s Anti-Rohingya Campaign Raises Concern as Rakhine Accounts Amplify Similar Narratives Across Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Social-media personality Awie MBR, also known as Abang Koroy, has been actively campaigning against Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, producing and circulating content that targets their presence in workplaces, residential areas, public spaces and on the streets.

His campaign was already active before Malaysia's latest police crime figures were released. His content has included confrontations with Rohingya people, aggressive and degrading language, and videos filmed in places where Rohingya workers and families live or gather. In some cases, Rohingya people have also faced rough treatment and physical confrontation.

Recent incidents in Selayang and other parts of the Klang Valley have brought further attention to his activities. In one video, Awie MBR filmed more than 30 people believed to be Rohingya at Taman Wilayah in Selayang, where men were playing football while families and children were using the public park. The footage questioned where local residents could use the facilities and attracted strong reactions online.

The wider campaign goes beyond individual videos. Rohingya people are increasingly being presented through social-media content as a collective problem, with individual incidents repeatedly circulated as examples of what is portrayed as a broader Rohingya issue. Such narratives can quickly move from online criticism into public hostility toward people simply because they are Rohingya.

At the same time, similar anti-Rohingya narratives have been actively promoted by Rakhine social-media profiles and networks believed to be associated with Rakhine nationalist and Arakan Army-linked circles in Malaysia and across the region.

These profiles have circulated content portraying Rohingya as criminals, unwanted foreigners or a threat to local communities, while repeatedly amplifying individual incidents and hostile commentary. The simultaneous spread of similar narratives across different profiles and platforms raises concerns about a wider coordinated or interconnected campaign targeting Rohingya refugees.

Malaysia's latest police figures also provide important context. On 15 June 2026, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Khalid Ismail said that 89 Rohingya individuals had been recorded as involved in criminal cases between 2024 and June 2026, accounting for 0.02 percent of all recorded crime during that period.

Individual crimes should be dealt with through the law. But criminal cases involving individuals should not be transformed into a justification for targeting an entire ethnic community. A crime committed by one person does not make every Rohingya responsible, just as the actions of an individual from any other nationality cannot reasonably be used to condemn an entire population.

The growing concern is what happens when the same hostile message is repeated across social media: Rohingya workers are filmed, families are confronted, people are challenged in public spaces, and individual incidents are repeatedly presented as evidence against an entire community. When this content reaches large audiences, it can contribute to an environment in which ordinary Rohingya refugees face hostility simply because of their identity.

The campaign and its wider circulation deserve close attention, particularly as similar narratives continue appearing through different social-media networks in Malaysia and across the region. What may appear as separate online campaigns can have a much wider impact when they repeatedly reinforce the same message against one ethnic refugee community.

Crime requires justice. But an entire refugee community should not be turned into a target because of the actions of individuals.