SOME two decades ago, there was a feature in an international magazine about a rock concert performed at what used to be known as Panggung Anniversary, Kuala Lumpur.
It started by asking: where else in the world can you find a band that is made up of full-blooded, true-blue rockers, starting their show with Assalamualaikum, the Muslim greeting? Only in Malaysia.
The weekly shows at the panggung is history. Rock groups, kugiran (kumpulan gitar rancak of the Pop Ye Ye phenomenon of the 1960s), even ghazal were performed there. The young gathered to enjoy themselves. But how things have changed.
So, it is of no surprise that the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) would come out with guidelines on dressing and conduct of performers during entertainment events.
The new ruling will ensure events are carried out according to syariah codes. Under current circumstances, where religiosity is redefining the way we do things, such guidelines are inevitable.
Understandably, the guidelines came under fire. Restrictive rules are a death knell for the industry. It will send the wrong message to people at home and abroad. It will stifle creativity.
More importantly, it will not gel well with the government’s mantra of moderation. The local entertainment industry is already being pressured from a borderless world. Creative content industry transcends race and culture, and our people have other choices from abroad if the local creative industry loses its freshness and ingenuity. The creative content industry is a billion-ringgit business, and in Malaysia, it is hardly making its mark.
As always, it is not so much the guidelines that worry the practitioners; it is the implementation that can go awry. Over-zealous Little Napoleons will take the interpretation of the guidelines into their own hands. We have seen that before.
I wonder how do you define “excessive laughter” to warrant a warning, for instance. Perhaps, the minds behind these rulings forget that wit and humour are very much part of the Malay psyche.
Just read some of the best kitab, Sejarah Melayu (the Malay Annals), to name one, on how the author used wit and humour tastefully and with finesse, even to criticise his kings. In Malay society, laughter has always been the best medicine. I don’t need to speak on behalf of other races on this matter.
No less than Datuk Manja Ismail, a veteran journalist and a respected columnist for Berita Harian, who argued strongly against the guidelines in his column last Monday.
His contention is simple — whatever the motives, the guidelines are confusing everyone. He asked a pertinent question — whatever happened to all other agencies responsible for monitoring the entertainment industry?
We have simply too many cooks in the house of Denmark, so to speak. Jo Kukathas, of Instant Cafe Theatre, did not mince her words: the guidelines are “making our country a paranoid, ugly, fearful and a deeply unfunny place to be in”.
It is ironic that while we are practising an open-sky policy, yet, we are arguing for more control over content. We need to understand creativity. It is the product of a fertile mind.
Yes, there are some who are willing to create upheaval or discord in the name of creativity. But, why bother about the minority in the entertainment business? The performing arts is the last bastion of a truly free endeavour, when all else is being eyed with suspect, even scorn. Everything we do these days seems to be polarising people.
We must take a strong stand on tolerance. This is a litmus test for tolerance. Tolerance is the bedrock of our survival as a multiracial country. On the same account, we must also tolerate artistic expression. Too many performing arts have died in the name of religious correctness. Many more will follow.
There are those among us who see the Christian cross as a threat to religious belief.
Thank God, the prime minister has taken a strong stand against the group that protested over the installation of a cross at a church in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya.
If you allow these people to have their way, one day, they will demand that the ampai baju (clothes-drying pole) be disallowed, for it resembles a cross.
Let’s not go that way.
Twitter @Johan_Jaaffar