Malaysian Film Banned

A quirky musical film has been banned in Malaysia. The Last Communist by Malaysian filmmaker Amir Muhammed tells the story of Chin Peng, a key Communist leader during the period in post-war Malaya known as "the Emergency". It was initially passed by the Board of Censors but after some concerned reporting from the Malay-language newspaper Berita Harian, the government decided to ban the film because of fears that it glorifies Chin Peng and Communism.

There has been a lot of outcry and open debate in the press and on Malaysian blogs about this decision. The older generation of Malaysians lived through a traumatic time in Malaysian history and understandably, have residual fears of the destabilizing influence of Communist ideology. The younger generation feel that they can make up their own minds about what to think and want the opportunity to see the movie and decide for themselves.

I haven’t seen the movie but will be queuing up for tickets when it is screened at the London Film Festival in Oct/ Nov later this year.

Personally, I don’t think the older generation have anything to worry about. From what I’ve read, the film is an off beat documentary with musical interludes, which include a girl singing about the importance of the identity card and not a rousing polemic to rise up and revolt.

Anyway, Communism is a hard-line angry political ideology of want and Malaysians are generally warm, friendly and well off. There are opportunities to improve one’s lot through work and perseverance. The economy is stable and Malaysia is at a stage of development where they can afford to have migrant workers do the less desirable jobs. Many people are - enterprisingly - driving across the causeway to catch the film and I hear that cinemas there have extended the runs of the film to keep up with demand. These don’t sound to me like people who will be rioting in the streets demanding the redistribution of property just because of a semi-musical documentary.