‘The New Village’ joins Shuhaimi Baba’s ‘Tanda Putera’ as two of the films facing scrutiny and heat by the Home Ministry this year. The latter piece is said to depict inaccurate facts regarding the May 13 racial riots.
However, from the trailers of both movies, one is able to see that the war against the communist insurgents as well as the racial riots were merely the backdrop of the films, and not the main themes.
The New Village is a love story between a girl who was forced to move to a new settlement under the Briggs plan and a communist soldier, while Tanda Putera is really about the relationship between former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak and his deputy, Tun Dr Ismail.
Regardless of the actual themes of these films, as an audience as well as an artist, I have grown weary of the involvement and opinions of the Home Ministry when it comes to our art.
Too often and too intrusive are their calls, banning anything they and they alone view as either a threat to the peace of the nation, or the sanctity of the Islamic culture and religion.
It is time politicians stay out of the art. It is true that these ministries are meant to police the content of the art but the ones who are making these calls need to be qualified in film and artistic appreciation.
Not some government official with no formal education and training in the arts.
Due to this, the Malaysian audience is constantly fed with the same, one dimensional and historically biased films since the days of ‘Bukit Kepong’. We are only allowed to hear one side of the story.
What does it matter whose version of the past is correct? If 1Malaysia is true, whoever started the racial riots should not matter. What is important is that Malaysians are now over it, and are more united now than we had ever been.
In fact, the only ones who still seem to give the May 13 incident any thought is the ruling government, using it as a scare tactic to retain control through fear.
Communism is dead here
‘The Last Communist’, inspired by the life of Chin Peng, was also banned because the Home Ministry claimed it glorified the former communist. Whether or not this is so, does the Home Ministry truly believe a mere film is able to implant communist ideologies in our Malaysian audience?
Firstly, communism is dead in this country. Not because the government has so cleverly guarded the people from it, but because Malaysians do not want it.
That is why we had always chosen the democratic system and nothing, not the least of all a piece of celluloid, will convince us that the old ways were better.
Secondly, the government does not think twice about using the media as their own tools of propaganda.
During the Sarawak state elections in 2011, suddenly documentaries and magazine programs about Sarawak and the many great things Barisan Nasional has done for them started being aired on all major channels almost daily.
Films like ‘Embun’ that praises only the Malay community in winning the war against the Japanese was showered with praise.
Yet how much of any of the propaganda was truly bought by the audience?
The truth is the audience is smart enough to decide what is true, and what is best. We aren’t mindless zombies who fall hypnotized to anything we see on the screen.
When the creative process is hindered by senseless censorship, the art and its content becomes stagnant.
Too many rules, for example the rule that states the Royal Malaysian Police Force can never be depicted with any sort of flaw, including mortality in combat or accepting of bribery, stifles the creative flow and in the end, filmmakers become nothing more than the puppets of the Home Ministry.
Perhaps eliminating censorship is too much to ask for. But it is only fair to ask the censors to be qualified. And for the Home Ministry to focus on other, more pressing issues concerning the safety of our country.
By Elza Irdalynna
Elza Irdalynna writes about art, love, and other things she pretends to understand. She is also an FMT columnist.
Everything gets banned as long as it does not suits my taste.
ReplyDeleteTHE PEOPLE IN POWER ARE 1ST CLASS MINDLESS IDIOTS- UK HONOURED MPAJA LEADER CHIN PENG ROLE IN ANTI-JAPANESE WAR
ReplyDeleteIT IS OK FOR THEM TO SHOW THEIR RACIST APARTHEID "TANDA PUTERA" BUT NOT SO-CALLED PRO-COMMUNIST FILMS.
The joke is on the colonial government in Kuala Lumpur which currently allowing a rampant reign of religious terror over the people.
It must be the victim of its own propaganda to gag the release of the film with their ignorant justifications when the MPAJA was honoured by Britain for its contribution to defend Malayan sovereignty.
The UMNO thieving good for nothing bloodsucking slugs never fired a shot at the Japanese during WW2 but ever since have called themselves "heroes".
UMNO's continuing cold war stance has not receded since the end of the cold war and the Baling talks nor since the death of the die hard anti-communist Tunku Abdul Rahman who shamelessly stole the victory from the MPAJA.
All these red demonization has continued despite the Malayan Communist Party and North Kalimantan Communist Party both got CONNED by the Malayan imperialist government to unconditionally lay down their weapons.
The parties did not demand anything to protect the people. In Sarawak it saw the escalation of plunder of the native landowners and their timber land.
Thus while they genuinely fought for independence from Malayan rule, their surrender let the foreign rulers run riot in Sarawak and also Sabah to plunder their resources.
But when you fight for independence you do not give up until you win or the last man or woman falls down.
Sabah and Sarawak has already been "Malay-nised" by UMNO and we cannot sit by just watch it happen.
if you don't like it don't watch it, no one is forcing you to watch la
ReplyDeleteU mean UMNO people? But why ban it?
DeleteIf as said the UK honoured the MPAJA role in the anti-Japanese war how is it that the UMNO usurper of victory and power are such cold war warriors about facts before 1948?
Are they so mindless that they are not able to accept facts or may be because UMNO did ZERO to fight the Japanese. May be some of them even helped the Japanese to occupy Malaya?