{"id":36920,"date":"2013-08-30T06:44:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T22:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/?p=36920"},"modified":"2013-08-30T06:44:01","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T22:44:01","slug":"bn-manipulates-creative-freedom-for-mischief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/bn-manipulates-creative-freedom-for-mischief\/","title":{"rendered":"BN manipulates ‘creative freedom’ for mischief"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yeo Bee Yin<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cCreative freedom\u201d should not be the exclusive right of the Barisan Nasional. Khairy Jamaluddin should apply the same standard of \u201cmanifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u201d that he preached about to every art in Malaysia or he will be a mere sounding gong of the Barisan Nasional government.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the Prime Minister Najib Razak\u2019s singing the song of \u201cnational reconciliation\u201d, Barisan Nasional has again proven itself to be the agent of separation rather than agent of reconciliation by allowing the controversial movie\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>\u00a0to be screened just a few days before Merdeka Day, not to mention the lack of justifications of using taxpayer monies to fund this RM 4.8 million project, which in no way help national reconciliation.<\/p>\n

In response to the Penang state government move to discourage the screening of\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>, the Youth and Sport Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, even go as far as to suggest to send mobile cinemas to all fields in Penang to screen it in case it is not allowed in Penang cinemas. He stressed the importance of the \u2018historical value\u2019 of the\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>. He was also reported saying that when it affects the DAP, there is no longer freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and \u2018manifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u2019.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>\u00a0is obviously a manipulated creative piece designed to fit certain agenda, Penang government has clarified that it can be screened in Penang cinemas. Saving his time to sending mobile cinemas to Penang, minister Khairy Jamaluddin should now move to allow the \u2018manifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u2019 that he preached about to different creative arts in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

If Khairy really cherishes history and \u2018creative freedom\u2019, we urge him to help to make the play ‘MERdEKAnya KITA’, which has been staged in Singapore and Indonesia, to be able to stage in Malaysia theatres too. The government has previously barred the play on the ground that it \u2018touches on local sensitivities\u2019 and is a \u2018threat to national security\u2019. We urge Khairy to use the same scale he measures\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>\u00a0to measure ‘MERdEKAnya KITA’ and speak up for the group\u2019s \u2018creative freedom\u2019 as he has spoken up for\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We would also like to urge Khairy to speak up for the \u2018creative freedom\u2019 of Ng Sek San, whose works of Malaysian Spring was not allowed in M50 Selamat Hari Malaysia Art Exhibition to avoid controversy and can only compromise to exhibit outside the exhibition gallery. If the reason of such compromise is that pro-Pakatan Rakyat individuals adopted Malaysian Spring in the 13th General Election, then where is \u2018manifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u2019 that Khairy is talking about?\u00a0\u00a0Or is \u2018creative freedom\u2019 the exclusive right of the Barisan Nasional?<\/p>\n

In addition, Khairy should also consider speaking up for the \u2018creative freedom\u2019 of artist Anurendra Jegadeva whose piece \u2018I is for Idiot\u2019 was taken down by the police from M50 exhibition because there is an alleged religious insult by certain people\u2019s interpretation of the art. Where is \u2018manifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u2019 when our artist need to worry and be so careful to avoid so that his or her art in no way can be interpreted to have insulted Islam?<\/p>\n

As Youth and Sport Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, if he will, is in a good position to champion \u2018creative freedom\u2019 in Malaysia. He will prove himself a mere sounding gong of Barisan Nasional if he chooses to speak up only for\u00a0Tanda Putera<\/em>\u00a0and keep mum for the \u2018creative freedom\u2019 of other artists in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The greatest resource of Malaysia is not the natural resources but the diversity of humanity. Malaysia has no lack of creative artists, what we lack is a genuinely free environment for them to express themselves without fear and manipulation through arts in different forms and colours. Creative arts should be allowed to flourish in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

As Merdeka Day is approaching, in the midst of racial and religious tension, let us be reminded that in 1957, our forefathers who came from different parts of the world, despite their differences in race and religion, decided to unite together to fight for independence. It was through unity that we enjoy the freedom we have now; it is also only through unity that our nation can march forward to be a great nation – a multi-racial, multi-religion, free, fair, vibrant and prosperous nation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yeo Bee Yin \u201cCreative freedom\u201d should not be the exclusive right of the Barisan Nasional. Khairy Jamaluddin should apply the same standard of \u201cmanifestation of democracy through creative freedom\u201d that he preached about to every art in Malaysia or he will be a mere sounding gong of the Barisan Nasional government. Despite the Prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[458],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-current-affairs"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dapmalaysia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}