Why Malaysia will continue losing creative talent

COMMENT The controversy (or discussion) over the ‘The New Village’ and ‘Tanda Putera’ films brings the spotlight back, quite rightly, on why Malaysia will never progress as a nation of creative talent under its current policies or political climate.

I am not here to question, as many others have done, whether or not ‘The New Village’ should be released. I am of the opinion that both films should see the light of the day, although I have reservations about state funding of ‘Tanda Putera’ (right).

Unless you watch a movie in full, you are nobody to judge whether the film glorifies and chastises a certain party- even trailers are not a fair benchmark in this respect.

What this exposes, though, is Malaysia's tendency to summon its moral police on anything and everything that comes out in the form of creativity- with politicians running helter-skelter in an attempt to act as guardians of information or to challenge ideas that reach society at large.

When a political party questions the film censorship board - prompting it to make a U-turn on its approval of the film - the flaw in our system is apparent for all to see.

And this is exacty why the prime minister's call for greater innovation from the current generation will fall flat, no matter how much money, promotion and advertising is spent on such a policy.

And this also why TalentCorp, if it is successful in getting the return of Malaysians from so many different fields, will never be able to re-attract creative talent that has left the country- even if the government doubles the monetary incentives.

Let me explain.

I am an author. Two years ago, when I set out to write my second book - a novel about the life of criminals and politicians - friends challenged my wisdom to choose Mumbai as the setting of my book and not Kuala Lumpur or anywhere else in Malaysia.

This is not to say Malaysia is not plagued by crime or the underworld, or their direct implication on the political power play. In fact these problems are prevalent here. It is merely a reality of modernisation and capitalism, it has nothing to do with boundaries.

My reasoning to my friends was very simple - I wanted to write a book about a group of criminals and I had no intention of including an Ahmad, Ah Chong and Muthu for the sake of political correctness.

If I had too many Indians in my story, I might be accused of painting the community in a negative light; the same would apply to any other community in the country. I could not afford to spend weeks trying to fill race-based quotas for my supposedly negative characters.

If I overstepped any delicate line in obtaining political correctness, I risked being banned or having my precious work being seized from me.

If anyone thinks I was thinking too far ahead at the time, the brouhaha surrounding the two films is a perfect illustration of my point. Not long ago, the government banned Irshad Manji's book, not so much for its content but merely due to the identity of the author.

Loss of potential

Not only did I write my book based in India, but I am also looking to publish the book in India itself and bring it to an international audience via those channels.

I would not even try to publish my work in Malaysia. Not unless this bureaucratic bottleneck is removed, something which I think will not happen until the political powers realise the talent and potential being lost due to their half-hearted bandying about with innovation and creativity.

Creative people merely look for a land in which we are appreciated. We are colour blind to whichever nation allows us to thrive creatively while having the freedom to subtly question its vital institutions - just as it should be in true democracy.

We writers and film-makers exist to challenge the norms of thought and to bring a new discussion to the fore, not merely to follow existing norms or accepted formulae. If there is one sphere that can't thrive without freedom, it is creativity.

Your X-Y-Z formula to making a successful and entertaining movie does not apply to me. The audience will expect to be surprised, to have their experiences heightened, and not to be treated with the same mumbo-jumbo every fortnight. That's not good for business. That is also a very bad investment.

I faced a similar bottleneck with my first book because it included a homosexual character. Bookstores, to date, have not taken in the book for reasons best known to them.

But I am no longer looking at Malaysian bookstores. I have set my sights beyond these shores. And as proven again by what transpired this week, nobody can blame me for doing so.