I went to watch a film (Jet Lag) at this year’s French Film Festival last Saturday, 29 May. It wasn’t until the film had rolled for about 30 minutes that I remembered that I had decided at the end of last year’s French Film Festival that I would rather not go to any more of this in Malaysia.

The reason? In order to comply with Malaysian licensing laws, the films have to be censored. However, because these films are screened no more than 3 or 4 times, the distributors decided that instead of subjecting the films to proper editing (i.e. cutting the film up and putting them back together nicely), they were censored in a crude rudimentary manner - they had a guy sitting in the projecting room and placing a card in front of the lamp whenever an “undesirable” scene came up in the film!

It got me so annoyed. The film continued to roll, the dialogue continued apace in French, the subtitles are hidden by the card and the cinema screen is one big black blank!

And it’s not as if the scenes being crudely censored were so objectionable: in Jet Lag, the few scenes blacked out were of people kissing (and it wasn’t even passionate - it was the flirtatious, talking-in-between type of kissing), the word “fuck” appearing in the subtitles (but by the time the card went up, you would have read most of the subtitles anyway), and in one scene, a man lying on top of a woman over a massage-table exchanging passionate words with quick pecking kisses in between. What the fuck…?!? Admittedly, in true French fashion, there was one scene where the actress was lying in bed, alone, having just woken up, and talking on the phone (to her mother!), with one breast bared to the world - of course, this would have incited enough sexual urges in any Malaysian man to go right out and rape some poor woman walking in the street.

Posted on June 5th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 13 Comments »

As if in response to my earlier post, the New Straits Times published this article today reporting how students are (hopefully) being discouraged from getting into a life of crime through caning/whipping demonstrations at school. The Star also published a similar article.

Posted on May 27th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 4 Comments »

I wasn’t going to blog today, but I was prompted.

I don’t make it a habit to bash Malaysia and Malaysians. I don’t think it’s a very positive activity, nor a very healthy one. But sometimes, it is just very hard to be optimistic about the country that is my birthplace.

Today, I was reminded that we are a society that lives in constant fear of the powers that be. They don’t have to wield an axe over our heads or necessarily have explicit laws proscribing certain actions. They don’t have to. They have an even better instrument to control our behaviour - our heads.

All of us are socialised from birth into believing that some behaviour is acceptable and others not. This happens everywhere, in all societies. It’s a necessary process that enables societies to function. Rules regulating social behaviour have to be internalised. However, societies differ on the substance of acceptable behaviour. Some acts are permitted in some countries, homosexuality for instance, but completely prohibited in others. You could probably build an argument over the value-judgement of these differences at the global level, but I don’t want to go there today.

What bothered me today was how Malaysians in general have been socialised into accepting the “prohibition” of certain behaviour that would, in most countries, be considered uncontentious. I should probably give you the specific example that bothered me, but I can’t - it would say too much. However, you could lump my specific example under the broad rubric of freedom of speech, however imperfectly. For instance, in Malaysia, the moment the topic of religion (Islam) or race arises, most of us would intuititvely lower our voices and look around us before speaking, if at all. Few are those who would broach the subject without some level of fear. This is the product of almost 40 years of our government’s leadership and policies. While, of course, in this case, there is a law proscribing the discussion of these topics beyond some level, it is also true that in all probability, the discussions would not be observed nor subsequently persecuted. In other acts, in the media for instance, there isn’t even a law with a comprehensive list of prohibited topics, but those in the industry “know” what they should or should not be publishing. We have all learnt to watch ourselves. We don’t need laws to guide us.

I am reminded of Orwell’s “1984″, and Soviet communism. What better control would a government have than when it no longer needs laws or instruments of force but can rely on our very own conscience. Ultimate power arises when you do not need force or persuasion to get what you want.

Posted on May 20th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 1 Comment »

I’ve just had the most depressing discussion about Malaysia and its future. We discussed a wide range of specific topics, briefly, but the general conclusion I drew, coming out of the room, was that we live in very sad cultural conditions.

Malaysia and Malaysians are stuck in a cultural mindset that promotes mediocrity, celebrates the superficial and provides little incentive for excellence. The dynamics of competition is sidelined by the promotion of the notion of consensus and peaceful coexistence. And the initiative of the individual is subordinate to the paternatlistic claim of the larger social group. Anyone who ventures to stick their head out, exert commendable effort, offers an innovative idea, tries to be different or rises above his/her station will soon find him/herself beaten, told-off and put back in his/her rightful place.

Don’t get me wrong, we do alright, we just don’t do excellently. Mediocrity rules, excellence is just something we talk about. It is built into our society and everyone eventually becomes socialised. The system just does not produce outstanding inviduals. If any existed, they would have found their way out of the country, as the Star newspaper highlights in a regular series in Section Two. If they had remained, few, if any, would be worth talking about.

Maybe this explains why I’m dying here.
Maybe it explains why I am who I am today.
Maybe it explains why I am not who I could be.
Or where I could be.

Posted on May 18th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 13 Comments »

Am I wrong or am I the only one who sees that the emperor has no clothes?

Immediately after the General Elections, almost everyone, from senior analysts to the media to most of the populace opined that it produced the most wonderful of results. They were so exuberant in their reaction and so full of conviction that I read and heard nothing else for days. No one seemed to delve beyond the superficial and critically examined what the results truly signified despite the availability of facts to suggest a more cautious reading thereof (for example, see here and here). In fact, I had commented to a friend that “while everyone seems excited and encouraged by the win, no one can put their finger on what is it that they’re excited and encouraged about“. It was all so fuzzy and unclear. It was superficial.

Now, finally, reality hits. And people are starting to realise that what they thought they knew, is not true. And will never be true.

Posted on April 2nd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 2 Comments »