Tanda Putera to screen next week (29/08/13) with controversial “urinating” scene

Tanda Putera to screen next week with controversial “urinating” scene

BY DIYANA IBRAHIM AND HASBULLAH AWANG CHIK
AUGUST 22, 2013

The controversial Tanda Putera movie will begin screening in cinemasnationwide on August 29 with several contentious scenes still intact, including one depicting a young Chinese man urinating in front of the Selangor Menteri Besar's official residence.

The film, directed by Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba (pic), was supposed to have been screened last year but was postponed three times due to opposition over its depiction of events surrounding the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

The media were invited to a screening of the movie on Tuesday night in Kuala Lumpur.

The screening proved that despite protests from DAP leaders, the government-funded film still had controversial scenes of incidents which some parties claimed incited the May 13 racial riots.

The RM4.8-million movie is the work of Pesona Pictures together with National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).

The director seemed to portray the Chinese community as being responsible for the May 13 riots.A scene from the movie Tanda Putera, taken during its premiere screening on Tuesday. The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, August 22, 2013.

And this was the contention of DAP leaders earlier who had said the movie was a Barisan Nasional (BN) propaganda film which can cause racial disharmony.

Controversial dialogue include "Orang Melayu pergi balik kampung" (Malays return to your villages) and a murder scene in a cinema where Chinese characters are writing "Melayu pergi mati" (Malays go die) on the screen before the victim is stabbed.

During the movie's early promotion last year, the production team uploaded the photograph of DAP's Lim Kit Siang, with the caption "Lim Kit Siang telah kencing di bawah tiang bendera Selangor di kediaman Menteri Besar Selangor" (Lim Kit Siang urinated at the base of the Selangor flag pole at the residence of the Selangor Menteri Besar), on the movie's official Facebook page.

The photograph was uploaded into the movie's photo album with the title "Scenes depicted in the movie". This led Lim and several other DAP leaders to deny the incident which was never recorded in the annals of Malaysia's history.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insider after the screening, Shuhaimi said the movie showed the friendship between two leaders, then-prime minister Tun Abdul Razak and his deputy, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, and how they faced the challenge of developing the country while battling racial tension and their health problems.

Shuhaimi said she did not feel any scenes in the movie were too radical and described the protests by DAP leaders as a political gimmick.

She said they were entitled to their views but for her it was just a political gimmick as nobody said the character in the urinating scene was Lim, except Lim himself.

"Give the movie a chance as it is a portrayal of the country's history based on true facts," Shuhaimi pleaded, expressing her disappointment at the Film Censorship Board for the way the movie was edited. – August 22, 2013.

source : the malaysianinsider