The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 05:02 PM PDT

JUNE 25 — When I read how Ibrahim Ali "clarified" what he said about the Chinese community, I had a vision of him in a sampan with a panic-stricken look on his face, working those oars in reverse like the devil was after him.

But this time, I am not stomping my foot in anger or screaming obscenities for the things he said. Then again, I cannot make the same promise the next time he says something that once again breaks the barrier of stupid... and with his track record, that could well be tomorrow.

He now says that the media, The Malaysian Insider, in particular, had sensationalised his comments on how the Chinese should stay indoors and stock up on food to avoid any trouble on the day of the Bersih rally (July 9).

How many times have we seen these back-paddling politicians? Swallowing their words and blaming the media for erroneous reporting with those famous lines: "I was misunderstood."

(This does not apply to politicians alone, but I'm choosing to be picky here, because, well, they are politicians.)

Every time I see the phrase "I was misquoted" or "I was misunderstood", it does not even occur to me that the reporter got it wrong, I think, "Oh, regret already-lah."

His attempts at "clarifying" were humorous:

"...usually, when there are street protests, I do not see the Chinese participating..." And to avoid a possible clash among Malays from PAS with Malays from Umno at the rally from "spreading to the other races", he thought "it is better for the Chinese to stay back, that is all."

Yet another forehead-slapping moment.

But this time I laughed.

Bersih is the Coalition for Clean & Fair Elections. If Ibrahim Ali was against a "Walk for Democracy" for Pete's sake, the words "Malay" and "Chinese" should never have been uttered. Instead it should have been, "I'm an independent member of Parliament who does not give a hoot about transparency or accountability in an election."

Ibrahim Ali has been annoying me for months now (keyword, "crusade"), and at times when I bring him up in conversations, people tell me "forget him", "ignore him."

But I can't. Because there is a section of the community who thinks he is right. And these are the ones in moments of reflection I worry about. There is a group of people being influenced by stupidity and yes, I do take it personally because they are being told I don't belong in this country.

I know not every Malay person thinks like Ibrahim Ali or wants what he wants. I know this. I have read your comments and heard your voices. And I have every confidence that Malaysians know better.

I have said it before and I shall say it again: How does he keep getting away with this? Why does he keep getting away with this?

Finally, in the words of Dr Toh Kin Woon, member of Bersih 2.0's steering committee, on its website: "Opponents of the walk will do well to respect this basic right, failing which, all calls for the creation of a highly-developed country will come to naught."

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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The RM11 million man

Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:39 PM PDT

JUNE 25 — I'm not sure if any of you readers out there have been paying attention, but last week a very notable milestone was achieved by a Malaysian film; it bagged RM11 million (and still counting) at the local box office, officially making it the highest-grossing film ever in Malaysian history, beating even Hollywood mega blockbusters like "Avatar" and "Lord Of The Rings".

As a keen follower and observer of the local film scene, this is truly a cause for celebration, even if the film in question, titled "KL Gangster" and directed by new box-office darling Syamsul Yusof, is at best only a decent action movie if we are to compare it to similar films from around the world.

If you've been regularly reading my rants here, I'm pretty sure you've noticed my very optimistic tone whenever I write about local films this year. We're still quite lacking in terms of technical (and even storytelling) quality compared to the mainstream films from our neighbours like Thailand and Indonesia, but historically they've had the similar rough patch that we've been having ever since the glory days of Malay cinema ended.

What's made me feel positive since the start of the year is that all the signs have been pointing towards us coming nearer and nearer towards that point where a crucial breakthrough is more or less certain to happen sometime this year.

Sometimes what an industry needs is simply an unexpected injection of excitement by a local box-office behemoth to kick-start an industry that's seemingly been in constant slumber. Huge box office means more people will be attracted to try their luck to invest in local films, which can only be a good thing for budding local filmmakers.

Thailand and Indonesia were quite lucky in that the breakthrough films for both countries turned out to be not only huge box-office draws but also very well produced quality entertainment. "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" did the trick for Indonesia while "Nang Nak" did the same for Thailand, and both films undoubtedly breathed a new spark of life into their once ailing film industries.

Look no further than South Korea to see what a breakthrough can do to an ailing film industry. I don't think many still remember, but the film that got the South Korean film industry roaring again was "Shiri", a record-setting box-office smash in its day (beating even "Titanic" and "Star Wars") and it was a very routine genre film, and if seen now in the light of artistic and commercial hits like "The Host" or "Memories Of Murder" will seem very unremarkable indeed. In fact, it's kind of a bad film, if you really think about it.

Whatever you may think of "Shiri" now, what it did was make Koreans excited to see Korean films in cinemas again, and that excitement led to a string of huge box-office hits from rom-coms like "My Sassy Girl" and "My Wife Is A Gangster" to war movies, horror movies, gangster movies and even a Western ("The Good, The Bad, The Weird"), making it one of the very few countries in the world where more people watch local films than imported ones.

In fact, the box-office riches resulted in more money spent to make arthouse films with high production values like Cannes sensation "Old Boy" (which was also a box-office hit with more than three million admissions).

So whatever you may want to think of "KL Gangster", I'm just very happy to see a local film break the previously insurmountable-looking RM10 million barrier. With two other films this year also surpassing the RM8 million mark, and we're not even done with June yet, that's almost RM30 million in box-office takings from three local films alone, which will surely get quite a few more moneymen excited.

And it's probably only a matter of time before some filmmaker armed with a clever, quality script, that's still commercially accessible, will get the actual budget that his or her film deserves to make it a quality production that could also very well be a box-office smash. We've already beaten Hollywood, so who's to say we can't do that as well, right?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 25 Jun 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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