Neophobia at the dawn of minds



Zedeck Siew

Two films from current Malaysian celluloid: the sequel to 2004's Sepet, Yasmin Ahmad's issue-heavy love story Gubra; road film and musical, Amir Muhammad's Lelaki Komunis Terakhir, (The Last Communist) which traces the towns visited by Chin Peng from his birth to independence.

Three reactions: public intellectual Faisal Tehrani's review of Gubra, Gubra Yang Sesat Lagi Menyesatkan (tehranifaisal.blogspot.com, April 24); the banning of Lelaki Komunis Terakhir by the Home Ministry after it passed uncut through the Film Censorship Board; and the Mufti Johor, Datuk Noh Gadut, calling the house-chore-helping husband an instance of "fenomena songsang" worthy of fatwa. (Utusan Malaysia, May 13)

"Before this, men doing housework wasn't an issue," says Toni Kasim, an activist who runs workshops on gender and sexuality issues and frequently works with the Muslim NGO Sisters in Islam (SIS). "Why is it an issue now?"

On April 23, film producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman appeared on TV1's art forum programme Fenomena Seni (that, in a following episode, had panellists justifying vicious gossip as a way of chastening the behaviour of entertainment personalities), accusing Gubra of defiling Malay-Muslim culture - partly because a bilal was shown frying keropok in the kitchen. Her rationale: "A pious wife would not allow her husband to cook." (theSun, April 26).

The feud between Raja Azmi and Yasmin Ahmad is a matter of public opinion. More worrying, Toni contends, is the fact that people like Raja Azmi and entertainment editor Akmal Abdullah (who was also on the programme) now appear to have power to trump due process and sway official reactions, under the umbrella reason that these films attack Malay-Muslim values.

"Lelaki Komunis Terakhir is passed uncut by the Censorship Board," Toni says, "It is shown at a private screening for police officers who also had no problems with it, then all of a sudden Berita Harian publishes articles berating the film, asking people loaded questions like: 'How do you feel about a movie that glorifies communism?', and Amir receives a letter from the Home Ministry saying that he can't screen the film here."

The film neither glorifies the communist struggle nor justifies Chin Peng's actions; it attempts to explore the Malaysia as the future-communist leader might have seen it, by speaking to people from the towns he lived in and satirising propaganda images of the era - Toni was part of the film's chorus, and performed, among other things, a song about how much she loved her identity card.

"If I was a filmmaker I would be so discouraged," Toni says. "Because you never know when the stupidest of reasons, put forth by people who haven't even seen the film, might cause the powers that be to ban your film."

Lelaki Komunis Terakhir has since traversed more surreal territory: after the ban, a screening was organised for Members of Parliament and media on May 21 (a gonzo documentary of which now exists on YouTube in four parts, for the curious) after which Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Rais Yatim said the movie was "Not important enough to be controversial," - on May 24 he then gives an interview, saying that Lelaki Komunis Terakhir "glorified Chin Peng, and we shouldn't glorify him".

A screening of the film was then organised for senators; this was subsequently cancelled, implying that proper channels are being violated at all levels of the issue. "So MPs can see it but senators can't," Toni says, "What does this say about Parliament?" A salient point, considering that the Dewan Negara functions as a balance to the Dewan Rakyat, essential to democratic governance.

Censorship without the inclusion of brains is bad enough. More insidious is, perhaps, the fact that criticisms, allegedly made in the defence of Malay-Muslim mores, carry more weight for the same reason - godless communism is the traditional enemy of Islam; the bilal cooking keropok will bring about a collapse of the family values - what next? Working wives, house-husbands, Akhirat?

Or so it seems. "If husbands doing chores is considered haram, what do we do about the fact that the Prophet himself was under his wife's employ?" Toni says. "Some will argue that the Prophet only helped her and wasn't a full-on house-husband as such - but the fact remains that Khadijah was a businesswoman - in fact, the equivalent to one of today's millionaires. The notion that men are the sole bread-winners of a household may very well be 'un-Islamic'."

Gubra's bilal-chef is only a threat to Islamic family law as it is practised in Malaysia, and the related crusade to make secular legislation defer to Syariah law; this is what Toni and her colleagues are trying to fight.

The opposition is formidable. It is also deaf. Toni talks of how she was heckled over the phone a day ago, because of SIS's involvement in the Article 11 issue.

Ad hominem arguments and name-calling are common in national discourse, especially on issues like religion. Such things are easy to counter. More difficult are the arguments such as is emblemised by young and formerly-liberal thinker Faisal Tehrani, whose review of Gubra quotes a selection of hadiths, employs myriad Arabicisms, and concludes: 'Kalau tak reti agama jangan syarahkan agama dalam filem. Jangan rosakkan orang.'

This piece of criticism, when it surfaced, shocked artistic and intellectual circles, not the least for fact that until a few years ago Faisal was frequently seen in the same circles as other such Malay intellectuals such as Farish Noor and Amir Muhammad, well-known for discourse that challenges or subverts mainstream socio-political norms. Jerome Kugan, who wrote the lyrics for Lelaki Komunis Terakhir, wrote in a Kakiseni.com comment following Toni's review of Gubra: ' Damn, that was scary for me to read as a non-Malay Faisal's comments (and the comments on his comments) - along with those imbecilic interjections on the TV1 show - reveal something I think is really ugly about what the NEP and Mahathir era have managed to produce: the dream of a far right homogenous Malay-Islam nation.'

The "comments on his comments" referred to on Faisal's site generally had the tone of: "Wow, Faisal, you have articulated my gut feelings in an intellectually rigorous way. Thanks!"

Gubra and Lelaki Komunis Terakhir have been attacked for different reasons: the former for containing a plural interpretation of Islam; the latter for a (merely!) perceived love of 'anti-religious' communism - itself an erroneous point; the Peace Village in South Thailand, current resting place of Parti Komunis Malaya, is divided into Malay and non-Malay communities, with religious sensitivities in mind.

Both these offensives have a root: ethnic politics as it is played out in this country, and its adherent's struggle to defend the hegemony. This struggle is powerful, trumping state-sanctioned procedure, like the 'Pope and Tsar' of Marx's Europe; it is deaf, it is uncomprehending. Our misunderstood spectre is multiculturalism, and it haunts us still.

Zedeck Siew, college-going and pretentious, is into aesthetics, civilisational advancement, and the lethality of tea. Send comments to Feedback@thesundaily.com.