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The Government Doesn’t Understand Patriotism

By Kee Thuan Chye
msn.com
27.8.03

I would like to talk about patriotism. Not just because Merdeka Day is coming up this Saturday, but also because the Government has lately shown its lack of understanding of what patriotism means.

It doesn’t mean flying the flag during the Merdeka month or at any time. That’s put-on patriotism and counts for nothing. It doesn’t mean playing the national anthem at cinemas and getting people to stand up for it.

Patriotism is what you carry in your heart – your love for your country, if you want to put it that way. It is something that makes you decide you will fight to protect it, perhaps even die for it. It is not something for you to shout out and tell the whole world about. Not even in Malaysia, which has a habit of wanting to show off and grandstand – for example, by sending to the prime minister last Merdeka Day the highest number of twits … sorry, tweets.

Patriotism is also about showing concern for your country. At no time was that kind of patriotism more evident than during the run-up to the last general election, on polling day and even after the results had been announced. At no time before had so many Malaysians shown their concern for the country in expressing their reasons to save it from its current corrupt mess. They cared enough for the country to want to see it improve and stop it from going the wrong way.

This was not something forced on them, unlike what the Government is doing now by getting cinemas to screen videos from Aug 28 to Sept 3 to remind people about the significance of independence, and to get cinemagoers to SHOW that they are patriotic by standing up at the end of the videos when ‘Negaraku’ is played. Continue reading “The Government Doesn’t Understand Patriotism”

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Tanda Putera a double-edged sword

Carrie Rina
Malaysiakini
12:13PM Feb 21, 2013

FILM REVIEW Despite the cabinet deciding against airing the controversial Tanda Putera film until after the next general election, the leader of the same cabinet, Najib Abdul Razak, appears keen on showing it to selected segments of the Malaysian populace.

The reason is likely that the film is a double-edged sword, serving as an effective propaganda tool for one community – but which may well offend the other communities.

While both the Malays and Chinese are depicted in the film as turning on each other during the May 13 riots, the Chinese were often characterised as the aggressors.

The film opens with a group of Chinese, who appear to be Communist sympathisers, attacking a party worker, and calling for the 1969 general election to be boycotted.

The victim was later revealed to be an Umno member, for news flash with the headline: ‘Umno party worker killed’ is shown. Continue reading “Tanda Putera a double-edged sword”

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Call on Cabinet tomorrow to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the May 13, 1969 racial riots not to punish the culprits but to allow the country to heal its worst racial wounds

Shuhaimi Baba should seriously consider my advice that although she prides herself as the original founder of horror films after directing a Pontianak film, she must not regard the May 13,1969 movie “Tanda Putra” as belonging to the genre of “ghost films” she had directed in the past, but must be conscious of a sense of responsibility to the nation especially to the present and future generation of Malaysians to protect and promote inter-racial goodwill, peace and harmony in the country.

Shuhaimi should therefore list out what are the fictional or unverified incidents on the May 13, 1969 riots in her “Tanda Putra” movie so as not to mislead and incite Malaysians resulting in worsening race relations in the country.

This is all the more imperative as Shuhaimi has admitted that the film is a fictional account of events surrounding the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

On Feb 21 this year, Malaysiakini carried a film review entitled “Tanda Putera a double-edged sword” by a “film enthusiast” who had the opportunity to watch the film at one of the previews held for different groups over the previous months, and it is clear from the film review that the film is studded with fictional or unverified incidents on the May 13, 1969 riots which could mislead and incite inter-racial mistrust, hatred and even conflict.

I refer to three incidents cited by the film review: Continue reading “Call on Cabinet tomorrow to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the May 13, 1969 racial riots not to punish the culprits but to allow the country to heal its worst racial wounds”

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Services not shortcut out of middle-income trap, ADB tells Malaysia

By Zurairi AR
The Malay Mail Online
August 27, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Industrialisation remains a vital step countries like Malaysia can ill afford to skip if they hope to beat the middle-income trap, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) cautioned as more emerging nations gave in to the siren call of the services sector.

In its flagship annual statistical publication Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2013, ADB noted that Malaysia was among nations whose economies were transforming more slowly compared to heavily industrialised economies such as Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taipei.

This warning comes as Malaysia continues to move away from manufacturing towards knowledge-based economy and the services sector, having started down the route with the Third Outline Perspective Plan (OPP3) between 2001 and 2010.

“Our analysis indicates that manufacturing is a developmental stage that generally cannot be bypassed on the road to becoming a high-income economy,” said a special chapter in the report titled “Asia’s Economic Transformation: Where to, How, and How Fast?”

“Virtually all countries that are rich today industrialised in the past — for a sustained period, their shares of both manufacturing output and manufacturing employment reached at least 18 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP) and total employment.” Continue reading “Services not shortcut out of middle-income trap, ADB tells Malaysia”