I woke up to terrible news today. Yasmin Ahmad, a celebrated personality in the local visual media scene, walks no more on this fair earth.
I have only met and conversed with her only once. It was at Hishammudin Rais’ little restaurant at the Central Market Annexe in Kuala Lumpur.
There was a forum at the Bar Council earlier and she was one of the speakers. I do not particularly recall what was discussed. I do however remember that a friend came up to the microphone and offered his definition of Malay, but that was more of a sidetrack than of a central theme. And I do remember a bunch of people congregated around her as I sat watching from the back of the room.
They were all excited about talking to her. The reason for that was obvious. She was Yasmin Ahmad, after all. To many I would imagine, they would not have watched a Malay film, no, a Malaysian film, for a very long time, if it was not for her.
At some point, everybody — for about ten persons — decided that a late supper was a great idea. Again, pardon me, but I do not remember how I was invited to the supper. Furthermore, I do not remember who was at the table, aside from that friend of mine, Yasmin Ahmad and Brian Yap. It was here that Brian and I were formally introduced to each other. I am sure I met other new friends there too but for the life of me, this was a good two or three years ago. My memory rots as a fallen tree branch would in the middle of rainforest.
What I remember best was the excitement about speaking to Yasmin personally. I think highly of her because, I truly believed that she was the best thing to have happened to Malaysian film scene since the days of P. Ramlee.
I first got to familiarize with her name after Sepet. I loved it. I loved it for the message it tried to deliver to the masses. I loved it for the controversy it stirred. And of course, every guy loved Sharifah Amani. Every guy has to thank Yasminfor introducing Sharifah Amani to the wider populace.
Sepet came out when I was still abroad. Prior to Sepet, I had no respect at all, anymore, for Malaysian film industry. In the Malaysian circle I was in then, the opinion that I held more or less shared by everybody else. When these friends, Malaysians abroad, started to get excited about the film, I naturally became curious.
My curiosity was not enough to bring me to watch it then because, hey, I was abroad and when it comes to movies, instant gratification does not exist in my vocabulary. And so, Sepet went to the back of my mind until I finally returned to Malaysia, at a time when everything seemed so lost.
Everybody was a racist, it seemed, and the country appeared beyond redemption. Amid all that, I remembered Sepet. It was Eid and the television was airing Sepet. I watched it and thought, at least, a flash of hope that things could get better. Here was what I considered a flicker of rebellion to the suffocating prevailing racial and communal culture in Malaysia.
Her work caused hostile responses for the conservative side of Malaysian society. It sparked a kind of debate sorely needed for our society to progress toward a more inclusive environment. The good thing about the debate was that conservative responses were so outrageous that I would like to think that it helped make the results of March 8 2008 — the general election that brought upon the biggest middle finger to the establishment in Malaysian history — a reality. It contributed in a little way and indirectly but it contributed regardless.
Her biggest impact was probably to the advertising industry. I said so because, thanks to her, everybody looked forward to Petronas’ advertisements. Malaysian audience anticipated her works as much as how US audience eagerly awaits the ads during the Superbowl. It has become a culture where it happens year in and year out. Unlike her films, the ads were sustaining an expectation, a way of life for Malaysians.
Yet, honestly, the ads are clichés, especially the ones that associate itself with Eid, Chinese New Year and other communal celebrations.
The biggest cliché of all, to me at least, was that Petronas ads about a Chinese boy and a Malay girl sharing infatuation with each other. It is a cliché, at least to the culturally liberal. Clichéd as it may be, people actually liked it. Somehow, she transformed a cliché into a classic. It is a classic because she put the cliché idea into a media that everybody can understand.
Previously, the idea of inclusiveness was mainly confined to words but words do not have the power of visual arts. In the old days of European Renaissance, the enlightened, full cognizant that the masses were illiterate, turned to paintings to tell stories. Yasmin did that for the idea of inclusiveness, the idea of Bangsa Malaysia.
There was more to do to further popularize the idea of inclusiveness, for the creation of a liberal society. Unfortunately, as fate has it, she left us too soon.
