Source : Malaysiakini
Aidila Razak
May 29, 10
3:34pm
The Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) last night hosted a three-hour carnival of dissent to ridicule censorship.
The event was dubbed ‘Malam Tak Nak Potong’ (The no-cuts night), with exhibitions, performances and video clips all chorusing the central message: end institutionalised and self-censorship.
Jointly organised by the 528 Media Action Group, the Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami), the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and the Civil Rights Committee of the KLSCAH, the annual event commemorates the day that MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) took over the Nanyang media group on May 28, 2001,
The recent resignation of ntv7 producer Joshua Wong and axing of RTM producer Chou Z Lam’s work have given this year’s event deeper resonance.
Wong had resigned citing “political interference” while documentary producer Chou rubbed RTM the wrong way over his series on the Bakun dam.
With momentum built up by the recent series of flashmobs on press freedom, the event attracted a crowd of about 300.
All Women’s Action Society Malaysia (Awam) deputy president Ho Yock Lin (left) warmed up the crowd with her cheeky and personable style, ignited the young and multiracial crowd into a lively slogan chanting throughout the engaging evening.
The crowd took to the performance of ‘Election Daze’, a reading of the censored script used in Five Arts Centre’s 2004 production of Huzir Sulaiman’s ‘Election Day’.
In the lighthearted item, actor Faiqshazwan Kuhiri was repeatedly struck with a ruler for uttering terms deemed inappropriate by censors, poking fun at the latter for barring the company’s 2004 production from using the words like “Wan Azizah”.
To comply, Five Arts was at the time forced to substitute the PKR president’s name with “gentle woman doctor in a tudung”.
Wong Su Zane delivered another powerful performance where she repeated “I am proud to be a woman” while covering areas of her body with labels reading ‘censored’ and hitting herself with a frying spatula.
Najib most popular
Amir Muhammad’s short video ’18MP’ kept the audience in stitches with his collection of ‘politicians’ darndest comments’. The video was shot after 18 parliamentarians had watched his controversial 2007 film ‘The Last Communist’.
Former culture minister ‘Rais Yatim’ got the most laughs when he tried to sidestep the controversy by critiquing the cinematography instead of the content.
Rais delivered the final punchline when he finally concluded that the film was being banned, among other reasons, for “not being violent enough”, sending last night’s audience roaring with laughter.
Of the visual art displays that accompanied the programme, Fahmi Redza’s ‘Najib’s Head Stolen from Billboard’ (left) caught the most attention especially of the shutterbugs.
The piece features the prime minister’s head cut out from a billboard advertisement, and is fashioned after the infamous cover of punk band Sex Pistols’s ‘God Save the Queen’ album, complete with police cordon.
It was originally exhibited at Valentine Willie Fine Art Gallery in 2009, but was allegedly removed after pressure from a gallery visitor who was also an aide working for the PM’s office.
The gallery maintains that they only did so to make room for another function.
Other notable visual presentations include Liew Teck Leong’s piece (right) requiring the audience to pull out nails that made up the word ‘Printing Presses and Publishing Act 1981’.
RPK speaks from exile
Capping the night was the screening of fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s video messages made specially for the event.
Raja Petra (right) stressed that repealing the Printing Presses and Publishing Act 1981 was the only way to end media censorship.
“Why do we need a licence for newspapers? Make it an economic decision… the best newspaper will sell and the lousy (ones) will not.
“If they print lies, people are free to file civil suits to claim damages… that is how things should be controlled,” he said in the night’s finale.
Earlier, speakers included editor Mat Zahari Ali of Kabar Era Pakatan whose newspapers were seized by the Home Ministry, censored comic writer Lim Sow Seng and Sharon Chin, a researcher into banned books.
Representatives from communications NGO Komas, whose video ‘Selepas Tsunami’ were seized for alleged sedition, also gave a presentation, while poets Ten Jong Seng and Yong Ai Lin read colourful poems on the current state of affairs.
Event a ‘failure’
More than just an evening affair, ‘Malam Tak Nak Potong’ also organised a media boycott that night, calling on all to switch off their televisions from 8 to 9pm, and to shun mainstream newspapers on May 28 each year.
Despite what appeared to be a vibrant evening, organiser and the man behind the ‘1Black Malaysia’ campaign Wong Chin Huat told the crowd he deemed the event a “failure”.
“If this was a successful event, then there would be FRU trucks outside the building,” he reasoned.
“But I expect this event will be even bigger next year,” he told the audience, who ended the night with reverberating chants of “Tak Nak Potong!”
Photos by Andrew Khoo
528 TAK NAK POTONG 