Perkasa now guns at Namewee over The New Village

The Malay rights pressure group Perkasa want the authorities to take action against filmmaker Namewee for criticising the government for ordering a review of The New Village, which resulted in the film’s premier being delayed.

Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim said Namewee had behaved excessively in his video blog posting on Youtube, where he ranted about double standards to the authority’s approach to the film industry.

“Although the film (The New Village) is about the Communist Party in Malaysia once ago, but it’s all no more than history.

“You can’t ban a movie simply because some idiots made some brainless complaint! That’s unacceptable, you know?” he said, while pointing out that another controversial film Tanda Putera was due to be screened on Aug 29.

Tanda Putera has been delayed multiple times since last year for due to criticisms about its portrayal of the May 13, 1963 riots.

As for The New Village, it was supposed to be released on Aug 22, but the Home Ministry has ordered the Film Censorship Board to review the film following complaints by Umno Youth exco member Lokman Adam that the film “glorifies communism”.

Namewee's own film affected

Namewee, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, also complained of the crackdown against sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee for posting a photograph that was deemed religiously offensive, whereas no action was taken against the headmaster of SK Seri Pristana Sungai Buloh.

A parent of a SK Seri Pristana Sungai Buloh student had previously claimed that non-Muslim students were being made to eat in the shower room during recess in view of the fasting month, while the school countered that the shower room has been used as a makeshift canteen since March, due to overcrowding in the canteen, which was under renovation.

In addition, Namewee also complained over his own problems with film regulators especially with his latest film Kara King, which was released on Aug 1.

He said the film has been delayed since Chinese New Year and regulators only provided him with the Aug 1 date on a very short notice.

As a result, he was unable to do promotional work nor release the film simultaneously in several countries as planned.

“No one knew when Kara King will be released. Only you alone know. I was notified a few moments ago. Without proper promotion, who is going to watch my movie? What should I do?” he said.