Censorship and Creativity

Just read the following article in The Malay Mail which made me feel incredibly sad and angry.

Haven't seen Yasmin Ahmad's films yet - but having read the article would very much like to.

But the issue of censorship destroying the creativity of artists here is a perennial one. And I can't see it going away any time soon.

Malaysian art must reflect real Malaysian life (and not be some idealised mirror of how the powers that be would like life to look for their own political purposes). Else honestly, what's the point? Malaysia needs artists with integrity - whether they be writers, playwrights, film makers, visual artists or whatever - who will tell their own truth about love, relationships, race, religion and all those other human issues that affect us all here. (Mat Salleh that I am i consider myself an 'us' not a 'them').

The alternative is that the people with real talent and the power to tell us something about ourselves shut themselves away where they will not get hurt. Or they cross the oceans to other parts of the world where they feel they can have a voice (but hey, will that voice be heard so loudly when there are so many other people whose voices are being heard at the same time?)


MOVIES: Killing ’em softly with their cuts
Meor Shariman

Dec 23:

IT looks like the National Censorship Board has dampened the spirit of another creative and visionary young local film-maker, Yasmin Ahmad.
She's one of many fresh and exciting young directors, whose passion to take local films to new heights has been tamed by our ‘moral police,' who still decide what local moviegoers should and shouldn't watch.

But we will continue supporting these bold directors, who go that extra mile in the name of art.

We hope they won't stop trying to be different and daring, despite being hampered by the Censorship Board who seem to be practising double standards – they butcher the kind of scenes in local movies that are often left untouched in foreign films. Now back to Yasmin. She tried to be as honest as she could in depicting the reality of Malaysian society in two recent films, Rabun and Sepet.

But that, as expected, didn't go down well with the Censorship Board committee.

Her first film, Rabun, shown over TV3, had a scene where an old loving couple take a bath together. That was deemed indecent and was chopped.

There was nothing revealing or obscene about that scene – it's quite common for married, couples, young and old, to bathe together.

The scene was meant to be inspiring as it shows how loving the old couple still are to each other despite being married for so long. After all, Rabun is a tale of undying love between the old couple.

The film was well received by both critics and viewers.

Now, Yasmin's latest film, Sepet – which was shown for a month without any cuts in Singapore – has incurred the wrath of the Censorship Board.

Sepet was first scheduled for a February release with nine cuts. Now, it has been banned.

Yasmin recently met with the committee to discuss the censored scenes. But she came out of that announcing she would quit film-making. (Yasmin made the announcement and shared her experience in a website, www.yasminthestoryteller.blogspot.com) THE NIGHTMARE When Sepet was shown to the Board, it was lambasted by most of the 12-member committee with a few appreciating it. One member said, almost in tears, that Sepet was the most enjoyable movie she ever saw and congratulated Yasmin. Another proudly said that Sepet was a Malaysian movie.

Unfortunately, the rest didn't feel that way. Many even made some ridiculous comments which showed how ignorant they are.

Sepet is a love story between a Malay girl and a Chinese boy – which is not unthinkable in our multi-racial society.

But one committee member's contention was that Yasmin didn't raise the issue of religion; he also asked why the Malay girl didn't try to convert her Chinese boyfriend. He said it would please the Malay audience if the Chinese boy becomes a Muslim at the end of the story.

Another member picked on the scene where Adibah Nor, Ida Nerina and Syarifah Amani lovingly combed each other's hair by the staircase.

His complaint – that scene would encourage Malay women to go back to their bad old habit of picking each other's lice! And if all that weren't discouraging enough, another member brought up the scene where a Malay character was seen in a non-halal Chinese restaurant. That set the stage for the bombshell – the committee decided to ban Sepet! It claimed it represented the rakyat (the people) and ‘had shown the film to some members of the rakyat and the rakyat wanted the movie to be banned'.

With that, Sepet – a film winning rave reviews outside the country – won't be having a cinema audience here.

THE DOUBLE STANDARDS GOING by Yasmin's nightmarish experience, the censorship board committee seems to be confused or is suffering from short memory.

Don't they remember approving films with a similar plot to Sepet in the past? Inter-racial romance is also the theme of Skop Productions' Sembilu 2005, the most-anticipated love story next year.

In Sembilu 2005, a Malay girl falls for a Chinese boy and the latter doesn't convert in the end.

The film has already been approved by the Censorship Board and will be screened in March.

As for the scene in Sepet where a Malay is seen in a Chinese restaurant, there was a similar sequence in Metrowealth Movies Production's Hingga Hujung Nyawa.

That was screened last July, and in that particular scene, a man even bought food from the Chinese restaurant for his dying wife! What was most absurd must be one committee member's complaint about the hair-combing scene in Sepet. It sounds like he's worried that female employees in Government departments will start picking each other's lice during office breaks after watching Sepet! With such a mentality, do we want such a censorship board committee to represent the viewers' choice on what films we should watch? No wonder why our film industry is lagging behind our neighbours like Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.


Drop by Yasmin's blog
for the whole story.