inclusiveness – the _

[2482] A big coup for DAP?

Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz and Aspan Alias are joining the DAP. This is big because it is yet another big step in widening the party’s appeal to the larger Malaysian demographics.

Let us face it. The DAP is mainly seen as a Chinese party. The characterization may be unfair to some extent because there is significant number of Indians in the party and there are definitely Malays in it. But the party derives its support mainly from Chinese areas and I do not think that can be dismissed easily. Even if it was untrue, the typical Malays who can be counted on to vote for UMNO and Barisan Nasional see the DAP a Chinese party. As the clichÃ© goes, in politics, perception matters.

This is a problem because if the DAP needs to survive in the long term, it cannot merely depend on Chinese voters and other non-Malays/non-Bumiputras. The Chinese demographics is not inspiring from the perspective of electoral politics. It is shrinking due to both the relative prosperity of the community vis-Ã -vis the general population (number of child per couple/per person drops as prosperity increases; happens almost everywhere) and emigration. To secure its future, the DAP needs to be more Malaysian and that means more diversified support base. That also means non-urban voters.

There are efforts to do that. In the several months after I returned to Malaysia, I managed to observe the DAP machinery during the Sarawak election, thanks to Tony Pua. As I have written previously, despite the seats in Kuching having a heavy Chinese characteristic, the banners were written in multiple languages for the first time. Those multilingual messages at times can be dizzying and but is the cost of inclusiveness. And of course, this has been the norms in the Peninsula.

And of course, there are Zairil Khir Johari and Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim. While their presence and effort are valuable to the DAP, there are just not enough Malays to translate those presence and effort into heavy political influence. Furthermore for Tunku Aziz, I do not think the increasingly competitively vicious political atmosphere will do good for the gentleman that is him. I am taking risk in saying this because I know both of them personally and I do appreciate their opinion of me but both of them are urban Malays whom a majority of Malays are unable to relate immediately.

Ariff Sabri Aziz and Aspan Alias are the different kind of Malays. Both are, or were, UMNO members and relatively influential at that. Their participation in the DAP immediately eats into UMNO’s base by virtue of their value as insiders. Secondly, they do communicate in Malay and that is a big plus point. They are widely read and that makes their entry into DAP all the more important. I do not know much about Aspan Alias but Ariff Sabri Aziz’s former connection to no less than UMNO President Najib Razak says a lot about how big a coup this is.

Yet another point to share. Zairil and Tunku Aziz have been accused as DAP or Chinese stooges, being token Malays and all that. With the presence of more influential Malays who are unlikely satisfied to become merely passive members, together with those already in the party, one has to wonder, is that accusation valid in the first place? One has to ask, why exactly are the Malays joining the DAP?

[2042] Of she left us too soon

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 clichÃ©s, especially the ones that associate itself with Eid, Chinese New Year and other communal celebrations.

The biggest clichÃ© 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 clichÃ©, at least to the culturally liberal. ClichÃ©d as it may be, people actually liked it. Somehow, she transformed a clichÃ© into a classic. It is a classic because she put the clichÃ© 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.