Yasmin Ahmad's comment

Below is Yasmin Ahmad's comment on about the Malaysian film industry and the language that is forced in the industry. This was in Afdlin Shauki's blogspot which i commented on and was next commented by Yasmin Ahmad. I do hope that this would enlighten people in whatever way possible


salaam, sayang.

much as i empathise with the plight, i wonder if language really works as a uniter of peoples. northern ireland and the middle-east are about as united as oil and water.

in a recent uk-based survey of diaspora chinese, it was found that the least country-loyal chinese were the indonesians, and the most loyal were, believe it or not, the malaysians.

film, i believe, is about humanity, not language. this is perhaps why, in days of old, chaplin's silent movies were popular in malaysia, and today, bollywood still draws in the audience. these were/are films about the human condition -- hope, despair, family values, love, and hate.

if cinema were meant to mirror humanity, then why can't malaysian cinema mirror the true state of our peoples? and isn't the true state of malaysian multi-lingual as well as multi-racial?

japan and china are just not as racially diverse as we are, so what's the point of comparing? and it is a well known fact that one of the reasons why multi-nationals often prefer to set up roots here over thailand, for exampe, is because our people are still able to understand some degree of english.

i'm as romantic as the next person, but sometimes we just have to be practical to survive. i've conducted lectures in advertising in guangzhou, beijing and shanghai, and what i found was startling. chinese uni students are scrambling to learn the english language because it is the only way to compete with rest of the world today. the japanese often refer to england as "the land of the sinking sun", but one of their major regrets is their inability to communicate in english.

finally, i think the only languages important to us are arabic (in order that we may understand god's word), and english (in order that we may conduct business worldwide). national languages can't be that important if the holy book and the hadiths made no mention of them.

of course, all this will prompt some melayus out there to say that i tak sayang melayu. but to me, i sayang melayu much more than most for wanting us to catch up with the rest of the world.

please jangan salah faham. i'm not saying we should make films in english. i'm just saying we should make films about people, speaking in whatever language they naturally speak in. and in this country, we speak in malay, tamil, cantonese, hokkien, punjabi, iban, bidayu, etc, etc.

for example, kalau bahasa melayu is compulsorised in cinema, i can't make films which are totally in tamil, if i want to. and why shouldn't i be allowed to do that? mukhsin was my first film that was almost totally in malay. it was also my biggest box office earner so far, with people of all races going into the cinemas to see our little film.

with my films, i hope to accord the malays a glimpse into chinese and indian lives, and vice versa. so that we can learn more about each other, despite the social and political forces that frequently try to separate us.

may allah guide me in my little struggle.