This article develops a general articulation of the politics of offence and outrage by drawing on examples of high profile political furores in Malaysia. In these furores, minority ethno-religious groups and individuals ostensibly caused offence to the majority Muslim Malay population. Although these offences were framed as transgressions of genuine sensitivities, I argue that politics of offence must be seen for the political utility it holds for those who claim to represent the majority group that has been putatively offended. In Malaysia, a key component of this political strategy is the positioning by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) of its constituency—the Malays—as being comparatively economically weaker than non-Malay groups. This positioning in turn warrants the continuation of the positive discrimination policies of the New Economic Policy of the 1970s, which was implemented to achieve parity between the major ethnic groups in Malaysia. An example of this was when UMNO vehemently rejected the findings of a think tank that argued that the New Economic Policy’s target of having 30% Malay ownership of equity had been achieved. This positioning of an in-group as weak, and the normalisation of privilege in the Malaysian context, is analysed in view of two other cases studies, Erving Goffman’s concept of ‘the turn’, and Ward Goodenough’s description of the human experience of outrage. I also show that ‘outrage’ as a politico-emotional strategy remains effective despite the momentous results of Malaysia’s general elections in 2018, which might otherwise herald a new era of inter-ethnic co-operation.

中文翻译：

---

马来西亚的愤怒：进攻的政治

本文通过借鉴马来西亚备受瞩目的政治骚动的例子，对冒犯和愤怒的政治进行了概括阐述。在这些骚乱中，少数族裔宗教团体和个人表面上冒犯了大多数穆斯林马来人。尽管这些罪行被认为是对真正敏感的侵犯，但我认为，必须看到冒犯政治，因为它对那些声称代表被推定被冒犯的多数群体的人具有政治效用。在马来西亚，这一政治战略的一个关键组成部分是联合马来民族组织（UMNO）将其选区——马来人——定位为在经济上比非马来人群体弱。这种定位反过来又保证了 1970 年代新经济政策的积极歧视政策的延续，该政策的实施是为了实现马来西亚主要民族之间的平等。这方面的一个例子是，巫统强烈拒绝智囊团的调查结果，该智囊团认为新经济政策的目标是实现了马来人拥有 30% 的股权。考虑到其他两个案例研究，欧文戈夫曼的“转向”概念和沃德古迪纳夫对人类愤怒经历的描述，分析了这种弱势群体定位以及马来西亚背景下特权的正常化。我还表明，尽管 2018 年马来西亚大选取得了重大成果，但作为政治情感策略的“愤怒”仍然有效，