Showing Thursday, but disputes over Tanda Putera aren’t going away
BY HASBULLAH AWANG CHIK
AUGUST 26, 2013
AUGUST 26, 2013
Shuhaimi Baba's Tanda Putera is opening at local cinemas on Thursday. The Malaysian Insider pic, August 26, 2013.
The film paints an inaccurate picture of incidents that occurred during the May 13 race riots in 1969, according to secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.
Lim said the government-backed film has spurted lies and accusations and if the Barisan Nasional (BN) government allows the film to be screened, it only proveS that BN is intentionally stoking racial tensions in Malaysia.
"The ministry should take appropriate action. DAP wants to see what the government would do after this. If nothing is done soon, we would discuss our next steps,” he told TheMalaysian Insider.
The film, directed by Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba, was supposed to be aired last year but was postponed three times following protests against several scenes in the movie.
The cost of the movie is estimated to be RM4.8 million and the project is a joint effort of Persona Pictures, National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).
Last Thursday, The Malaysian Insider reported that DAP had urged Tanda Putera’s producers to declare the film a fictitious work.
DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said then the film would provoke anger and racial tension.
Last year, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang criticised the production company when it uploaded a photograph of him being arrested by the police, with a caption “Lim Kit Siang urinating on the flagpole at the home of Selangor Menteri Besar” on the film’s official Facebook page.
It was later removed after the company received numerous complaints.
Yesterday, Shuhaimi told The Malaysian Insider that the movie is a fictional account of events surrounding the May 13 racial riots.
Shuhaimi said her film is an interpretation of historical events derived from multiple opinions.
She explained that after certain parties strongly objected to a scene where a character urinated at a flagpole in front of the house of a former Selangor menteri besar, she edited the scene to tone it down.
Kit Siang said there was no concrete evidence in the form of documents, photographs or official reports on the alleged incident.
He also said that based on the country’s first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj’s books, there was no acknowledgement of such an incident as shown in the film.
Up till now no one had claimed to have witnessed such a scene, he added.
“Although the film had obtained the approval of the government and they had denied that I was involved in the incident, the production team should not be given the freedom to spurt out lies that could jeopardise relationship between races," Kit Siang said.
“Additionally, the last few months in Malaysia have been tainted with incidents of racial and religious polarisation and so, to air the film at such a critical moment is very irresponsible.
“This is a film that is funded by the government, so those involved have to be responsible in handling racial sensitivity in Malaysia.”
The Malaysian Insider had the opportunity to attend the premiere of the film last Tuesday and found that it still contained several controversial scenes of incidents which some parties claimed caused the May 13 racial riots.
The film’s controversial dialogue includes “The Malays should go back to the village” and a murder scene where the line “Malays go die” is spoken in Mandarin right before the victim is hacked.
Shuhaimi had emphasised in the past that Tanda Putera is about the friendship between two leaders, namely the country’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak and his deputy Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, when they were both trying to develop the nation while battling health problems.
Tun Abdul Razak was the father of current prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Shuhaimi told the press that she did not think that there was any scene in the movie that was overly radical and she viewed the complaints of DAP's leaders as political gimmicks. – August 26, 2013.
source : the malaysianinsider
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