Malaysian Media and Culture is one of my favorite subject. I love this subject as it inspired me a lot and it has most impacted on me. I gain lots of knowledge from MMC class. After attended MMC class, I only realize that I don't really understand Malaysia history and I would love to find out more after every MMC class. I also realized that it's important to know what happened and what's happening in our country.
To be honest, I feel ashamed when every time Dr. Carmen called my name and I couldn't answer her question. It's actually because of I'm not sure about it and I afraid that I was wrong. Hence, I'll check the history and read it again to know more about it from Darkest Day in Malaysian History(3/5/1969), Operasi Lalang, ISA, Hudud, Kelantan Culture to Independent Films in Malaysia. Besides, I also appreciated that every field trip that we get to participate. I learnt different things from every event that we participated.
One thing that I will remember most from this class is the every role play and exercise that we did in tutorial class. It's different from others subject's tutorial. We get to speak and voice out our opinion in class and it has no certain right or wrong in certain case.
Lastly, thank you Dr.Carmen, Dr. Andrew and Ms.Ezzati for giving us such an amazing class.
Today, Kg
Hakka is a small complete town of about 40 families, mostly Chinese and has
been in existence for more than 100 years which comes with a temple, school and
everything else a complete town needs.After surviving the rise and fall of the tin mining industry, the residents are facing forced eviction
by MEGA developer. In fact, the villagershas been livingin Kampung Hakka for about hundreds years. This is the issue that is happening
in Kampung Hakka, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan today.
The
film directors Mr. Victor Chin and Ms. Chan Seong Foong both are the first time
filmmaker is also the founder of Rakan Mantin. They decided to film this
documentary after helping kampung Mantin for three years since 2013. After first time of demolished the house, they started up ‘Rakan Mantin’. Rakan Mantin, a community initiate to promote and to protect historical and cultural landscape from indiscriminate demolition. The objectives of Rakan Mantin are to protect and to promote Hakka cultures and heritages. They organize events often and invite public to visit Kampung Mantin such as “ a walk in Mantin town, Cemetery walk, Kg Hakka CNY open house” and son on.
Rakan Mantin Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/584879164905751/
I was impressed that both director contributed a lot to the villagers of kampung hakka. Mr.
Victor Chin saw this demolition case in social media which is a video shown the
police fighting with villagers because of the villagers were trying to protect
their houses. Mr Victor ask Ms. Chan to go and checkout the place of what is happening
at there (Kg Hakka Mantin) because they think the fighting is brutal. “How can
Malaysia independent for 59 years treat Malaysian treat people in such a brutal
way. It’s terrible and we were angry.” Mr Victor Chin said.
At July 20 Wed, Rakan Mantin, they was assisting us by doing interview section,
At 24 July (Sunday), we decided to visit kampung hakka as the women section of the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall organised - a visit and lunch to Kg Hakka Mantin. There were over 80 members and some were from other associations. The villagers guided them through thier historical and cultural landscape and they also cooked a Hakka lunch. They were here in solideraty with the villagers to safeguard their heritage.
A group photo with Chong Tze Yaw and his cute kids
We get to chat with grandma kong in a very limited time as she had to rest. From the chat, we know that she wakes up early everyday to do house chores as this is her habit. She also cooks meal for her child and grandchild everyday. One thing that shared by her in order to keep a healthy and strong body is she drinks a glass of health wine every night before she sleeps.
Visited Kampung Hakka, Mantin and made a short documentary video is the most meaningful thing that I did in this year. I didn't know that forced eviction case is real happening in Malaysia and it's still happening on today. People real fight to safeguard their home.
Despite the pressure of development and land grabbing practice of local government, the villagers in kg. hakka are still defending for their right to safeguard this historical and cultural landscape.
This issue needs to be
concerned and hope that young generations can share this film out through
social media
Puteri Gunung Ledang is a legendary Malayia local movie in 2004 based on the Legend of Puteri Gunung Ledang, a Malaylegend about a Princess who lived on top of Gunung Ledang and a Malaccan Sultan's effort to court her. The storyline is unexpected. At the begnning od the movie, there's some controversy shows between loyalty and sacrifice. The Tuah-Jebat conflict captures the tension between loyalty to the state(authority) and loyalty to friendship. Hang tuah has to follow the instructions that giving by Sultan even though he is not willing to do so. It relates to the tension of loyalty in real Malaysian history. In history, Malaysian has to follow and show loyalty to British government before Malaysia independent.( The time during British was authoring Malaysia.)
This movie is too long for me. An the middle of the movie is boring and I almost out of focus for a few times. However, at the end it's quite sad and romantic for me. In a nutshell, I like PGL and it is a good and worth to watch movie although it's a bit lengthy and draggy. To be honest, I don't like any Malay movie before PGL. So I would recommend this movie to my friends and family.
MMC has been always taken away my first time and this is my first time again to attend Freedom Film Festival 2016 at 20th August @ PJ Jaya One. FFF has create since 2003 and it provided a vital platform for social flmmaker and human rights activist to showcase their films. This is a very great platform to advocate the cases.
There's a campaign for Malaysia's Accession to the N convention Against Torture(CAT). I played the "wheel of torture" game and won a #ACT4CAT T-Shirt as a little gain at that night.
Started from 7pm, there's 3 screening of documentary film: "Stories from my father", "Unlocking Bengoh" and "Voyage to Terengganu". Again, these films were impressed me, I cried during the first screening of the stories from my father and burst out laughed for the last screening, "Voyage to Terengganu". The both director is creative as they used metaphor to present in the film and it makes audience laugh and laugh again. We also can see that they are a humor person during the Q&A section they answered some question in a funny way.
By the way, The most impressed me film is the Stories From My Father. The "daughter" Ashleigh Lim is the filmmaker and she was inspired to make this film when Director Victor Chin and Chan Seong Foong encouraged her to share her father's story. I was shocked and excitement when I saw the Director Victor Chin and Chan Seong Foong name appeared on the credit list, they are the director of "Memory as resistance: Grandma Kong defending her village". I was like: Wow! Such a pleasure because they were assisted our assignment and we have an interview session and talk with them before.
Back to the topic, I was impressed that Ashleigh Lim decided to discover her father's dark past in this film. Her father was detained from 1968 to 1974 under ISA ( Internal Security Act) for his involvement in the Labour Party. I can feel how hard the father struggle in order to survive during the screening.
After watched the film, I felt goose bumps when I saw the father and the daughter were walking to the stage. Lastly, congratulation to them for won the Malaysian Film Grant and special mention for Best Southeast Asia (Short) Awards. They deserved to be the winner as the film was a very impressive film.
Last but not least, FFF goes around Malaysia and Singapore as it will be showing again at Johor, Penang, Ipoh, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. I would attend again for the Ipoh FFF at October 8.
1984 is written by Malaysian political writer, Khee Thuan Chye. This play is adapted from Geogre Orwell's novel 1984. I was so excited as this is my first time watching a drama play in a black box theater. New Era College Drama& Visuals students had done a well play I would say. They amazed me although there's a minor mistake as they might forgot their script in the middle of the play.
At the end of the play, there's a video of the writer. He read the last line with a powerful emotional: "Yes, You have the power to bring about changes. Unite! Stand up and say yes! Yes, the future lies with you! Yes, you will rise above fear and complacency! Yes! Yes！Yes! Yes!"
I was impressed too and hence I asked my friend: Why don't we stand up and shout yes together? She said: Are you sure? No one is standing and doing this. Then I was keep quiet and shout inside my heart. Malaysian are still too shy to do an action and to be honest I'm one of it.
I bought the script book and got signed from the author Khee Thuan Chye. I actually found that there is quite a lot of typo mistake inside. Maybe it's because of the production of the book was in rush I guess.
For last week
tutorial on 12th of July, we have watched 2 different documentary of Kelantan
which produced by UTAR and UM students. They focused on different aspect
of Kelantan culture. Utar documentary are looking at problems in Kelantan
and their back story. For UM documentary, they focuses more on the information
of Mak Yong dance.
After watching the
video produced by UTAR, I get to know the issues happened in Kelantan which is
Main Puteri has been banned. Main Puteri is a form of psychotherapy and it's a
healing process which a sick individual will be healed and accompanied by a
band of music instrument.
UM has a clearer direction which is focusing on Mak Yong. After watching their
video, I understand the process of the performance. UM has shown the process
from make up until the end of the Mak Yong performance.
In my point of view, I prefer the documentary of UM. I think that UM did a
better job in the way of convey message. Beside interview Professor, they also
interviewed many performers for their opinion and their feeling after performed
the dance. For Utar team, I was impressed by their editing techniques which
are the fast pace scene and the earth scene.
Questions which I
curious to ask the UTAR film maker:
1. How long do you use to create this documentary? (Included the time for
preparation and post-production)
2. Before you shoot this
documentary, as an outsider how did you view or think about the issue and culture
of these performances in Kelantan? Besides, after you shoot this documentary,
have you changed your perception towards the cultural performances in
Kelantan ?
On 27th of June, I attended the the screening of Viral, Sial in class. This film is talking about the death of BFM journalist, rape over questioning the hudud and issues in Kelantan which directed by David Buri.
This film is also in response to the previous episode: KUPAS. The episode questioned hudud, the unresolved issues in Kelantan included unemployment, poverty and homelessness. Aisyah threatened rape by people because of she made fun of "HUDUD".
In my point of view, people like to criticize without understand and care the people feeling. Aisyah is just voicing out her opinion but it leads her to being threaten. It's contradictory when we all have the right to voice up our opinion but it is not us to judge should or shouldn't.
Malaysian citizenship can be obtained either by registration or by naturalization. Either way you have to give up your prior nationality as Malaysia does not allow dual citizenship.
A foreigner can apply to become a Malaysian through naturalization. The requirement is to live in Malaysia for 10 of the 12 years, able to speak adequate Malay and have 2 Malaysians recommended.
These question has made me think over and over again.
Should we accept or reject immigrants to be Malaysian citizen? How if Malaysian population overwhelm? Will it affect our nation identity? Should we give them rights and privilege? So, why do we need immigrants?
When we're blaming on the high intake of immigrant worker, government officials have stressed that Malaysians are usually not interested in jobs that involve "dirty, dangerous and difficult" and lower pay work. To summarize, immigrants understand hardship. As a result, Malaysian government has to bring in them in order to fill up the vacancy.
In A thought experiment by Chok Kah Weng, he stated that, "Are we really so afraid of being replaced that we decided to treat immigrants with contempt in this country?"
I asked my father regarding will he accept immigrants, he answered me in an interesting way: "I need to ask Brunei, Dubai and Yemen. If they accept me to become their citizen and get all the privilege. The answer is in them. If these Muslim country can accept us, why not we accept them? But if they can't, why we must? "
In my thought, I do really appreciated them for their contribution and hardworking attitude. Typical immigrants come to Malaysia primarily for better incomes and add value to Malaysia economy. However, they also take away value by weakening the legal national security. Looking at the other side, it's actually a political issues (We all know what's the behind motive). Hence, in my point of view, I stand neutrally. Perhaps in one day, we should give them rights when Malaysia has a comprehensive and effective solution to overcome all the conflicts and enhance the national security environment.
During last MMC tutorial class on 7th of June, we did a role lay regarding the Fahmi Reza's issue which I mentioned on my previous post. He was charged with violating multimedia laws by depicting Prime Minister Najib Razak as a sinister clown. I learned a lot of the early history and the power of the Sedition Act.
At the end of the class, Dr.Carmen has raised up a question which is are the arts, images more dangerous than words? What do you think?
In my thought, it would be yes. :)
Arts can function as modes of communication. Human use arts and images to express and present their feeling. With the assistant of advanced technology, creative idea can be expressed through visual images and presented in various form in media. We can see it from how Fahmi Reza's depictions of Najib went viral rapidly on the internet.
In my opinion, arts and images can express feelings more than words can say. For example, a graphic image of crime and terror on the news would have a greater influence and impact to people by creating a feeling that the world is not safe.
Picture retrieved from https://strifeblog.org/2016/02/18/organised-crime-and-terrorism-part-iii-letters-from-dubai-d-company-and-the-93-mumbai-terror-attacks/
That's why arts and images are way more powerful than words. What do you think?
I'm here to share with you all my experience at KL Alternative Bookfest (KLAB 2016) + Art For Grabs which was happening on last Saturday & Sunday ( 4th&5th of June) at Publika, Kuala Lumpur.
It's the 9th year of #KLAB as it began in 2008 in conjunction with Art for Grabs . This time, they cover more than just selling books, comics, crafts and handmade items by Malaysian indie publishers and local craft vendors. There're also talks, forums, performances and film screenings!
** I was so excited as this is the first field trip of my Malaysian Media and Culture class. =P **
My pretty coursemates and me :D
Art For Grabs Bazaar
Exploring the art for grabs bazaar is what I like the most in this field trip. =D
There are total of 54 booths of arts and crafts & 6 NGOs to promote and sell arts, accessories, bags, soaps, hand crafts, etc.
I'll share all the links/information/contacts of the booth at below if I know. Sharing is caring ngawww :)
Be Good - Natural Body Care
This booth was selling hand crafted cody care product which all made by natural product with no preservative, no artificial scents or colouring.
I bought their handmade Rose Garden lip balm because I love the smell so much and it only costs Rm10. =D
I personally like this booth the most because there're a DIY Wax beads candle section and DIY Soap making section for people to try out and make our own product in 10 minutes. Other than that, their stuff is friendly and helpful.
Their body lotion is made by essential oil which carry different function. I bought the Pure Palma Rosa one.
I'm sure all of my coursemates came to support this booth. I was shocked that Andi Miranti is our lecturer Mr. Anthony's son. Andi is a talented 17 years old boy & I'm inspired by him so much!
Here comes his little story.
Andi is a 17-year-old Malaysian who likes to draw, read, and play on the computer. Besides being diagnosed with autism at the age of two, Andi also had some degree of low muscle tone, so before the age of eight, he was never really excited to write, draw or colour as a young child, even though he was surrounded by art materials and comic books due to his brother’s interests. So from eight to about fifteen, his interest grew and grew and so did the number of comic strips he drew. It was interesting that for many years he continued to draw his characters in stick figures, only drawing them with hands and fingers after the age of fourteen. This development of a more full and complete image appeared to mirror his own cognitive development, as during this period he made many leaps forward in social abilities and a deeper understanding of himself as a person with autism. At fourteen he announced that his latest creation, a comic character named Ned Dickens, who was about 13 years old, was going to be a full-fledged comic book. He also started talking about becoming a published author/illustrator and to the amusement of his parents, was even writing drafts of his “about the author” and “acknowledgments” pages. That was when his parents started researching ways to get his dream to come true.
In the end, his parents decided to self-publish his book. On the advice of a close friend who is a graphic designer, the book was kept in his original handwriting, crooked lines and all. It felt more authentic and also seemed to honour his development in penmanship, since until this very day, whenever he handwrites he forms the alphabets laboriously. It takes a great deal of effort. He applied for and got a booth at Art for Grabs in 2014 when he was fifteen. It coincided with the launching of “The Adventures Blue-Smashin’ of Ned Dickens (Part 1)”. The book introduced the Ned Dickens character as a young teenager who always seemed to get in trouble with his Dad, whom he sees as very irrational. Ned has a brother but his biggest worry is Bill E., a boy who torments him. Ned spends a great deal of time getting in and out of trouble. He also thinks a lot about ways to get membership for a game called "Runescape". Motivated by how well the book was received, Andi went on to continue the story of Ned Dickens’ misadventures in “Ned Dickens Part 2 (Not a Sequel)” which was self-published in 2015. In 2016, Andi finishes the story with “Part 3 “Still Not a Sequel. Part 3 is extra exciting as it includes bonus material such as a chapter-by-chapter commentary section, and a sneak peek at the next Ned Dickens adventure called “Ned Dickens and his Chronicles through Time”. When asked what this new book will be about, he said Ned Dickens travels through time, past and future. When he travels to the past, he punks and makes fun of famous historical figures.
All these are my favorite booths.
Art for Grabs is a very good market to introduce handmade local designs or goods. I enjoyed explore it so much as I'm a typical girl who love crafty and little cute handmade things.
Hope they'll have more of these in the future!
There's many choices of local books in the book fest,. I spent more than half hour on seeing or reading the books until I forgot to capture any picture of it.
Pang Khee Teik is an arts programmer as well as a Malaysian human rights activist on the issue of sexual orientation of gender identity and expression.
He posted a post in Facebook to explain how it happened and his experience in police station with the title- A PARTY AT SENTUL POLICE STATION.
I found this post is well-written and hilarious as he explained the incident with his great sense of humor. I'm impressed that he still managed to being positive and humor during that situation. (I like the SK II part hahaha )
Besides, Utusan Malaysia has also reported the news about the crime court case against Fahmi Resa for uploading the picture of Prime Minister face.
Fahmi Reza is an artist with a brave soul as he doesn't afraid to stand for his art and his right. He use art and design as a weapon to fight against injustice. He said that he wont stop to use his graphics as a tool to raise awareness of Malaysian and to push for change in Malaysia.
A sincerely big respect for his stand, spirit and courage !!
I attended a book launch which presented by publisher Thukul Cetak at around 2pm. They were lauching the book- "Homeless by Choice". It is a project for the homeless and women's narratives and Mislina Mustaffa is the author of "Homeless by Choice".
Mislina Mustaffa
Mislina Mustaffawas an film actress an theatre activist who’s active in
Malaysia. She holds a degree in acting from University of Science
Malaysia.
In early 2012, she decided to go
homeless. She wanted to feel how homeless
people feel. She decided to do it even though Malaysia is a conservative
Muslim majority country.
She loved the journey and lessons she learnt so much and
hence, she wrote a book entitled 'Homeless By Choice'.
She shared her homeless
experience and adventure story during the talk. She said that she was
influenced by a French author and feminist Simone de Beauvoir who
once said that "85% of a women's daily life is spenting on cleaning the
dirt that keeps coming back." She was curious to see what
she'll be doing with this 85% of her time with her statement "when you
hav no house, you have no dirt to clean." Therefore, she began
her homeless journey.
She did a 2 years
research but she failed in the first time. She went back and became an actress
again. After one year, she decided to let go everything that she had included
her house. What she had left was just 4 clothes, a computer for her to write
and a camera for her to capture moment.
She was started her
journey and living outside for a year. After one year, someone sponsered and
offered her to travel around the world for free. She said that she wouldn’t get
this opportunity if she still stay in the house.
During the talk, she has
mentioned that selfish is actually not a bad things, it actually is to take
care of our own self. This statement has made me confused. Should we being
selfish? I was amazed by her braveness decision and she never used any chemical
product and makeup since she started to live homeless. I think that this is an adventure that everyone should go one at
least once in their lives. If there's a chance in future, i'd like to
give a try too!
If u'd like to know more
about her, this is a short film of her which she shared her homeless experience
and adventure story.
Poskod Journalism talks- Funning The News @Black Box, Publika
After done browsing through the booths, I attended the Funning The News Talk which excted y eveyone because one of the speaker of the talk was Harith Iskander! FYI, He is the “godfather” of Malaysian stand up comedian. The another panelist of the talk is Lau Chak Onn, which is the Co-Founder and Editor-in Chief of http://cilisos.my/.
They shared lots of experiences during the talk. Lau mentioned that the difference between Bahasa Melayu and English readers, which is English readers do read the news post where BM readers they dont read but just share the post. This is hilarious and therefore they changed the headlines of the news in order to attract readers.
From this talk, I learned that there's no certain formula in making fun of news and not everyone can take jokes (from Harifh Iskander). It has to depend on a person's race, background and language. Making jokes can be funny but also can make people feel
upset or irritated if u joke over the line. Therefore, we have to becareful when telling jokes. In fact, there's no doubt that making a funny news can grab readers' attention easily than the normal news.
To sum up , the news has always been a fantastic source of comedy. However, in a situation where information is restricted and journalism is under threat, these avenues become more than just mediums for joking. They became strategies of speaking truth to power!
p/s: It's so pleasure to see them in person!
In short, I enjoyed the talks & looking forward to the next field trip (: Bye!
