At the film screening last night, quite a few of the cast and crew explained that they they got out from the racist mindset that they were raised and schooled in when they got involved in theatre.
Of course, you can say that this is luvvie propaganda.
But then I suddenly remembered how the Education Ministry (then headed by Anwar Ibrahim, who was also a big cheese in UMNO) ceased drama competitions in national schools in the 1980s. We all though it was due to some sanctimonious squeamishness (after, theatre sometimes involves *gasp* both boys and girls on stage, and some of them might not be wearing the purdah). But the reality might be something less silly and more sinister: The Ministry (as the representative of UMNO) didn't want kids to start understanding each other. Because once they did, there was a chance that they would stop being suspicious and fearful. Hence destroying the raison d'être for all racialist parties, no?
Two decades on, I am slapping me forehead, I am.
Do catch GADOH if there's a screening near you:
5 comments:
One of these days, Amir, you may want to assign one of your essayists to 'excavate' the policies and acts affecting the Malayan/Malaysian education system. There is much potential there for a Foucaultian study/archaeology of mind control.
By 'education system' I mean to include the universities of course and the series of egregious Universities Acts we've had imposed on us.
"luvvie propaganda"
Shouldn't it be "lovely propaganda"? Check your spelling.
Luvvie has a different, albeit informal and in this context exaggerated, meaning :-)
Funny that Auntie Anne banned drama in school, being top drama queen herself.
Well, a diva worthy of second billing at least, in "Mak Mah and Kak Anne - The Musical".
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