Talentime

Considering how long I haven't updated this blog, a new entry means it's significant enough to have me worked up and excited and passionate and emotional.

And boy, Yasmin Ahmad's Talentime does it.

This is not really a review; I have no intention of putting up a summary and making notes and compiling all the goods and the bads of this superb piece of art. What I do intend is to merely comment on what I felt (and still feel) from watching the movie, and my main goal is to convince all Malaysians regardless of your background to put aside a couple of ringgits to watch this image of a slice of what Malaysia, well Malaysia.

This movie is in itself a depiction of how the different races of Malaysia (well, specifically the Malays, Indians and Chinese) live their lives and interact with each other, and how prejudice, not merely of race, but of other factors as well, destroys your own interest in the matter. Thus as a Malay (conservative spirited, but not particularly conservative acting) my commentaries will be from the Malay perspective, and I encourage everyone else to comment on how the movie affects them as well, as I think what Yasmin may have intended; appreciating the differences between the different groups comprising Malaysia.

Tales of inter-racial, or really, more accurately inter-religious romances have always been a taboo subject. Even I personally dislike them, as religion is (or should be) a significant part of life enough to make people realize that love isn't worth the trouble for the chaos that might arise later. Nevertheless, it does exist, and Yasmin beautifully captures the image and presents it to us so that even if we refuse to accept it (as I will), the least we can do is see why.

Prejudice, oh prejudice. How boring life would be without thee. It's amazing how people just automatically attach stereotypes to people just by what they are and how they look, making them look dumb in the process, of course. Granted, stereotypes exist for a reason, but it doesn't mean your brain has to lock down on the fact, even after the 'fact' has been disproved. Yeah, not all Chinese have five dogs slobbering all over them.

*SPOILERS - SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED THE MOVIE* I personally liked the fact that Yasmin Ahmad and I fell in the same wavelength when it came to religion conversion. Just because someone converted to Islam doesn't mean they have to change their name; he or she didn't convert into Malay. *END SPOILER*

I was truly entertained by the fact that Talentime gave us a wake up call on a lot of things. How little I know about what issues the Indians have; how a lot of Malays have the bad habit of automatically associating Chinese with being dirty; how people just tend to forget we've got OKUs among us in the population. All sorts of imperfections that we love to forget we have.

Talentime is a beautiful rendition of how better life can be with a pile of tolerance, a dash of understanding, and a smattering of acceptance. Too bad a lot of people are still stuck in their own coccoon of selfishness and simply ignoring the fact that Malaysia comprises of more than just their own race. That is why I truly recommend that all Malaysians watch this movie, not only to support the great talents of Yasmin Ahmad (not to forget all the superb acting from many of the actors) but to also remind us of how small our matters are in the bigger picture.

Must Watch.

Ethnic Relations

WALL OF TEXT!

I was planning to write a post about one of the subjects I’m learning in uni atm, when I realized it’s not quite public knowledge that I’m now in Universiti Malaya studying Economics, after forgoing my studies over in Ireland. So eh, if I get the spirit and motivation to write about that, I will. After all, Izad said that I should be writing about studying a first degree as an older student, so maybe I should. Not right now, though.

For now, I want to talk about GXEX1414: Hubungan Etnik, or Ethnic Relations.

I have a strong gut feeling that the entire purpose of the teaching of the subject is to prevent one of the more significant pieces of history, the 13th May 1969 incident, to repeat itself.

What I found interesting was the fact that it instead of teaching on the impacts of racism and such, it teaches facts and an expansion of our vocabulary by giving definitions of Racism, Prejudice, Stereotypes, etc. It also teaches the gradients of racial harmony/combinations (I.e. assimilation, amalgamation, etc) and just stating the facts of the economic, political and social conditions of the different races of Malaysia.

It doesn’t emphasize, for example, that stereotyping is a bad thing, or that we as Malaysians should be striving towards better racial relations. It simply states definitions. No brainwashing here.

I suppose that since we’re all university students and all, I guess the purpose of the subject is just to let us be aware of the words relevant to race and ethnicity and know the racial differences, while we as individuals make our own decisions on what kind of prejudices we want to use (in an ideal world, none, of course).

Considering I myself still have prejudices, I’m not one to talk. But the least one can do is not make these prejudices visible. It’s more polite that way. I believe as long as we’re not discriminating (big word with strong meanings), it’s totally fine.

But eh, considering the other day my roommate told me he’s wary of the Chinese on our hostel floor stealing his laptop when he’s not around, I’m not sure the subject is teaching much. For some people, at least.

New Politics

Malaysia recently had an interesting twist in her government. The current BN government just lost its strong, firm grip on controlling the politics of Malaysia, losing its 2/3 majority and leading the country with only a simple majority.

I myself am pro-BN. It's just part of who I am; I don't like changes and if something still works I'll still be using it. Just ask my mum. But I find this slight shift of power quite amusing, and I really like this change. There's a lot of reasons why.



1) BN has been monopolizing the media too much. TV3, RTM, the newspapers, everything is just so biased that one can never know what is really going on in the opposition camp. When it comes to insulting the opposition, hey, voila, front page news. Anything wrong with the BN gets all hush-hush, and swept under the rug. Really, watching the news I'd be damned surprised if you didn't notice the pro-BN-ness. It's too GLARINGLY OBVIOUS. Geez. if you keep showing yourself off and insulting your opponents, your popularity isn't going up ya know.

2) BN is too complacent. E.g. the Penang officials were bickering on who would be the next Chief Minister. Again, they think it's not going to be a big deal to the general people. Lo and behold, BN no longer owns Penang, and all that bickering gone to waste. Not so smart. And geez, not campaigning much, and cocksure of winning 2/3rds parliamentary majority again? Overconfident much?

3) Corruption. The politicians accept bribery and stuff. Hearsay on my part of course, but I *do* know they've got not a huge enough salary to live in huge mansion, which some of them do. Makes you wonder, really. I'm not jumping on anyone's throats here, but suspicion is good enough to distrust someone you put your votes into.

I'm not 100% into the opposition camp either. The ultimate goal of each opposition party is too different for them to unite. For example PAS is purely based on strong Islamic beleifs which no way in hell will DAP agree to. PAS made a smart move this election by not even mentioning an Islamic Nation concept. Kudos to them, but really, you really know that's their ultimate agenda.

Will their coalition work? I don't know. In fact, I don't know where the results of this election for any party will lead to, at all. But 'the damage' (some might not see it as damage, but meh) has already been done. Now it's just best to wait and see.

I however have a couple of predictions. The Penang government is going to abolish the DEB, which favours the Malay. It's always been at the core of the decision making of the BN government. Which, as a malay I fully agree with ^^ Because this is our home, and if we're exiled out of our own home we have nowhere to go. The Chinese can trace their ancestry back to China, and the Indians probably still have connections in India. Malays? If we're out of Malaysia, we'll end up like the Kurds.

Having said that, let's see how it's going to affect the penang politics. Removal of DEB means everyone gets equal opportunities in government projects and such. I, being a Malay myself know my own race, and we really suck. We're not going to get those projects. The ones who are better at it are going to get it, and it's definitely not the Malays. Trust me on this. I'm predicting a revolt from the Malays in Penang about the imbalance in a couple of years time.

But as I said, I'm just going to wait and see. Who knows, they just might suprise me.

This is a good time for all of us as the people of Malaysia. The BN wants to win our hearts back, and the opposition wants to win the rest of Malaysia come next election. This obviously means we're in a win-win situation people! BN (hopefully) aren't going to be complacent anymore, and the opposition needs to prove their promises. So have a seat, peeps, and enjoy the ride. Unless both parties make stupid decisions, we're in for a nice ride to a better Malaysia.