Multi-cultural acceptance?

A few days before the Diwali celebrations, Finas, the National Film Development Corporation aired a two minute public service announcement (PSA) that have seem to have touched the sensitivities and offend the Hindus.

If you didn’t managed to catch it before it was taken off air, here is a brief synopsis. The clip was actually part 2 of the Hari Raya clip featuring an Indian convert with his Malay wife doing raya shopping with his father. That clip, although not that great in terms of production but still worked in terms of concept, which was acceptance.

Part 2 which is the clip in question, was about celebrating Deepavali at the in-laws house where the Malay wife refused to touch anything that was served. She needed for the neighbor to tell her that the food was ‘halal’ before she ate.

“It implies our food is uncivilized,” said the Federation of Indian Organizations treasurer, Victor Suppiah, who led a group of protestors to hand over memorandums at Finas and Astro (The Sun, 12 November 2010).

If the intention of the PSA was to incorporate a portrayal of multi-cultural acceptance, it failed miserably because it depicted anything but that.

Firstly as Malaysians and as a multi-racial community, we would never be that rude to offend our in-laws so openly. Secondly, if the wife was so extreme in terms of religion, she wouldn’t have married a non-Muslim in the first place and last but not least, when we go for open houses for what ever celebration, we never ask if the food is ‘halal’ as it is already a given that the host would have prepared food that everyone could consume.

Finas Director-General, Mohd Mahyidin Mustakim said in his defense that the storyline was thought up by a small internal production team comprising of youths and viewed by groups of people before being aired. On that same note, I took the discussion to the younger colleagues in the office.

Yogee commented that besides the bad acting, the whole PSA did nothing to enhance the multiculturalness of our country. It lacks sensitivity to the Indian culture and religion and shows them not accepting other religions and culture, which is clearly not the case. Having converts in her extended family helped her understanding of inter-marriages better.

Yoke Teng agreed that the indifference did not portray the 1Malaysia concept, if that was the intention. She further gave examples of other PSA’s that have been produced in the past for other celebrations and had an impact on her. It was at this point that I said “I miss Yasmin Ahmad work”. No director did it better than her.

One good example of inter-marriages was ‘Sepet’. Did you watch this controversial movie? This film hit the Malaysian cinema in 2004 and was the talk of the town soon after. There were two main groups of people, mainly the group of young and upcoming filmmakers who liked it and the old school of thought who hated it.

Well, ‘hate’ is a strong word. Let us just say they did not quite like it because of the main focus of the story. Sepet is a simple story about one Chinese boy, Jason, who enjoyed poetry and one Malay girl, Orked, with a penchant for Chinese movies. Together they told an unforgettable love story. So what’s wrong, you ask me?

Yes, pray tell what is so wrong especially since Malaysia is a multiracial country and almost everywhere we turn we see couples who are from this multiracial community. It would be cliché to say that we should be open-minded, especially, after more than50 years of Merdeka!

Maybe it was because of the other issues that were also highlighted that caused some discomfort among some quarters: like issues of the Malay quota into universities, bumiputera scholarships selection, and other more serious issues of race and religion.

Talk about race and religion today and it becomes a poison dart. Almost everybody is sensitive about it. Say something that is deemed insulting and a fight can just explode. What has this generation come to? What has brought it on? Where did we go wrong?

I remember when I was in school; there were no issues about race or religion. We were simply, just friends. And most of my friends were either Chinese or Indian as we spoke the same ‘foreign’ language – English.

Yes, I went through peer pressure at a very young age. I didn’t have many Malay friends because I could speak this ‘foreign’ language fluently. How can I not, my Mum was an English teacher! I had little choice…

Even during my uni days, we used to move around in a ‘gang’. The more the merrier. And our gang comprised boys and girls of all races. In fact, race was a non-factor as we were just fast friends studying at the same faculty from a wide range of fields, ranging from mass communications, anthropology, Malay and English literature, to political science. You name it and we had them all in ‘our gang’.

You could imagine the discussions we had on any current issues. It was enriching, engaging and loud, as each wanted to hold on to our own respective stands. We could joke and call each other names. We could even say to our Malay friends “Melayu memang gitu, malas, bila nak rajin entah…” (Malays are always like that, lazy, don’t know when they will ever be hardworking …) and no one minded or took offense.

We could also tease a certain Chinese boy in our group “Dia memang kedekut, tak pernah nak belanja sebab nak cepat kaya. Cina memang business-minded” (He’s always like that, stingy, never wants to pay for drinks because he wants to get rich fast. Chinese are always like that, business minded). Eventually our Chinese friend would pick up the tab, but with such great reluctance.

Our Indian friend was also not exempted. He was good looking with fair skin and a sharp nose. He did mention to us that he had ancestral Brahmin origins that made him ‘handsome’; not that we cared. So we used to tease him for his self indulgence “Species India memang macam tu, perasan. Susah kawan dengan orang-orang yang ditimpa perasaan ni” (The Indian species is always like that, self indulgent. It’s so difficult to be friends with people like that).

His retort would always be “I can’t help it if God made me good looking”. Yeah, right!

Try this today, and you are lucky you remain unscathed and are not punched in the face, or slapped, at the very least. That is getting off easy. I do not even want to imagine the worst case scenario.

And during those fun uni days, hanging out with a boy who was not of the same race was also a non-issue. Or it did not matter to the university community as we were one big, happy family. But of course for parents, it was a different story.

Imagine you are a parent and your son wants to marry a Malay girl like Orked. Your son would have to convert to a different faith and more often than not, drop his family name: a surname that had been carried and honored for generations past. What many are not aware is, changing or dropping your surname is not even a must, just a preference.

The general understanding would be to leave ‘everything’ when he gets married; implying severance of all ties with his birth family for the family he is marrying into. Was it so impossible for Jason to change his faith while maintaining relationships with his birth family? Definitely there would have to be compromises and tolerance on everyone concerned; but if it could make Jason happy, why not?

If Jason was willing to face the obstacles and the challenges, why not give it a sporting chance? One never knows. It might just have worked. After all, some people have been known to give up for a lot less!

I remember towards the end of our graduating year, my Indian friend had developed a liking for one of my Malay girlfriends. They were just friends; at least that was what my friend thought. But, he apparently had feelings for her. However, he was not about to leave his religion for her. Hence, they parted. So now we know what some men would not do, even for love!

What about the Chinese boy who used to gaze into your eyes whenever you spoke to him. He always had this love-sick puppy expression. Cute in one sense but you knew he was not listening to a word you were saying. His only excuse was “Your eyes are so mesmerizing …” What can you say to that? Well, just smile … I did.

Well, having said that, Sepet went on to win The Best ASEAN Feature Film 9th Malaysian Video Awards in 2004 and was the official selection at the Barcelona ASEAN Film Festival in 2005. Sepet also competed in the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival 2005 and Creteilint’l Festival Women’s Film 2005 in France.

If it had won these prestigious acknowledgements in other countries, it must have made a statement, positive ones, don’t you think? So why was it still such a controversial film?

The easiest answer would be because ‘they were an unlikely couple’. But who are we to say that they would not have ended up happy or the relationship would not have worked? Shouldn’t the underlying idea in any relationship be understanding, love and passion that surpass all boundaries of race and religion?

To quote Jason in his letter to Orked: “I’ve waited all my life for you but you took so long to come. And so much has happened in the time that I’ve waited for you. I used to write poetry only to God as I had no one else, but I believe God has sent you to me, you’re my poetry, Orked…”

So, do you still think they would not have made it as a couple? I’m positive that with our multicultural and multiracial ‘ness’, they would have been victorious!