INDONESIA-MALAYSIA PETTY DISPUTES: A CRY FOR UNITY AND GREATER UNDERSTANDING.
…CREATING THE NEW MALAY AND NEW ISLAMIC CINEMA CAN SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS.
By Mansor Puteh
The problems which Indonesia has with Malaysia are mostly of the same type starting with some demonstrations by a small group of Indonesians outside of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta and going into their newspapers and ending later on in the blogs where there is a free for all.
They are petty issues that had been turned into unnecessary controversies by the media in Indonesia, for nothing other than to flame up some people in Indonesia, hoping that these could rally them to become better Indonesians who are seen to be more patriotic and nationalistic.
Alas, what they can only manage to do is to burn the flags of a country that had provided jobs to millions of their countrymen who willingly come to Malaysia to pursue their dream with many willing to pay scores of thousands of ringgit in order that they can be smuggled into the country.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the two countries are still not able to accept these petty controversies for what they are and find solutions that are long-lasting which can ultimately ensure that the same controversies are not repeated.
How many Malaysian flags had been burnt or stepped upon outside of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta? Were they done by the same small crowd of Indonesians, or different ones?
Chances are, all those who had done that and will do something like that are those who had not come to work in Malaysia, either legally or illegally.
While those who had come here to work here for many years, and returned to Indonesia, would not dare do something like that, or else they could be seen to be ungrateful to Malaysia that had provided them with jobs that paid them a lot more than what they could get in Indonesia, for which they are now able to enjoy a better life in their own country with some having their own shops and houses and other properties.
Strangely, those who are better qualified are not known to have done the same, by going to the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta other than to conduct official business and not to burn the Malaysian flag or to step on it.
And how many Indonesians in Malaysia would want to do that outside of Wisma Putra in Putrajaya to support the actions of their counterparts in Jakarta?
You can never find Malaysians who had studied and lived in America to go to the American embassy in Jalan Tun Razak to demonstrate. You only find those who did not make it there.
On the other hand, one can never find those Malaysians who had studied and lived in England to demonstrate outside of the British high commission in Jalan Ampang to do the same. Yet, they are willing to go to the American embassy to voice their displeasure against the American government.
Meanwhile the leaders from Malaysia try to diffuse the problem and hope it will end and new disputes will not erupt in the near future. They do not know what to do besides doing that.
And the comments I have heard from the commentators from both sides are not apt either; they do not deal with the real issue which they thought are major ones when they are in fact, petty ones.
There is a more pressing concern on this matter and it is one which cries for unity and greater understanding.
Unfortunately, the psychologists, sociologists and historians are not able to see the problems from this perspective as they deal mostly with those problems which are sexual in nature.
So this is where I come in.
The demonstrations in front of the Malaysian embassy are really about the cry for this and nothing more.
And that the authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia have not done much or anything at all to promote greater unity and understanding between our two peoples, especially amongst fellow Malays and Muslims.
Diplomatic initiatives alone are not sufficient, because they are purely for media satisfaction and do not solve the core problem as stated immediately above.
There is a greater need for both countries to look at the whole issue in the most simplified way, and that it can be solved permanently by engaging the peoples of the two countries in all areas.
One of which is to encourage the development of the Sinema Nusantara or New Malay Cinema.
In the international context, Muslim countries must introduce and encourage the development of the New Islamic Cinema, without which there can never be Malay and Muslim unity.
I may be biased in this matter, simply because I am trained as a filmmaker. But this proposal is based on the finding I have managed to get from my travels to 33 countries and how Hollywood had indeed united the Americans who are from diverse backgrounds, with many who were from Communist countries.
Yet, they have become true Americans in the shortest period of time, speaking in English only and not in their native languages.
The Malay World is fractured despite it is in the same small region. And the Muslim World, too, is fractured because we do not have any single cinema, where we can share our vision and expand it.
It may sound trite, but the powers of the cinema, is not purely to entertain the viewers, as what the film critics say all the time but more than that, it is an important and interesting medium to promote peace and unity and greater understanding amongst the Malays and Muslims.
I presented a paper, ‘Muslim Cinema as an antithesis to Hollywood’ in the First International Muslim Filmmakers Conference in Tehran, in February, 1994, and this paper can be the basis for the development of the New Malay Cinema and the New Islamic Cinema, and that these two mediums can be used to promote Malay as well as Muslim unity.
I feel sorry for our ‘experts’ who have given their personal and professional views on why the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia is shaky and that there is no Malay and Muslim unity. Their comments are not intelligent or interesting but predictable and stereotype.
We must go beyond these and come up with something original for a change, because the problems faced by Indonesia and Malaysia and amongst fellow Muslims worldwide, petty as they are, require original thoughts and ideas.
I am afraid the group of 14 from Malaysia and Indonesia that had been assembled by the governments of the two countries, with each supplying seven members each, had failed to do their job which is to find ways on how to promote understanding between our two countries.
This group had met at five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, flying first class each time they travel to each other’s capitals, has taken their own sweet time to deliberate on the issue.
In the meantime, petty issues and controversies had erupted, while they were doing what they are supposed to do; yet no one of them had dared or made any attempt to study the matter, on how they first erupted and how the demonstrations came about and who were their leaders.
If they cannot do this, what else can they do? NOTHING!
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of ringgit have been spent on this hapless group of 14 who cannot ensure us that they could come up with intelligent proposals that can be implemented. I expect them to say something unintelligent and highly predictable.
They will not propose the creation of the New Malay Cinema and the New Islamic Cinema.
The problem with them is that they are old; they represent an earlier generation. And they are not sincere to admit that they are not capable to find ways to promote greater unity and understanding between our two countries.
If they are, then we could have seen what they had initiated when they were younger and while they were in office.
Some of them held high positions in their respective governments, yet, they had not done anything other than to do what was expected.
None of them has been known to have traveled through the length and breadth of the two countries, including their own, to try and touch base with the ordinary folks.
Now it is already too late for them to do so on their own.
I have traveled by land and experienced untold hardship travelling from Banda Aceh in the northernmost part of Sumatera Island all the way across the island, through Jawa Island and arriving on Bali Island.
I can admit that it was not a comfortable experience traveling around Indonesia by land. One needs to have a lot of patience and luck to survive the arduous journey. But it was enjoyable because I wanted to experience it.
Most of the people I met or bumped into along the way gave me a good glimpse of what the whole country wants, although this may not necessarily be what their government in Jakarta wanted, or cared about. They have other plans.
They, like their counterparts in Malaysia as well as in most countries only cared for their personal well-being which centered on the media exposure they can get from their personal initiatives. If they are happy, they think the whole country is happy. How simplistic.
So my suggestion to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia is for them to dump the hapless group of 14, and get another group of men and women who represent the New Malaysia and New Indonesia, who know what the ground wants, and not what their political leaders want or care for.
The English and Dutch had caused the people of Malaysia and Indonesia to be so divided since 1824 when they, on their own volition, signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty and grab whatever country and lands they wanted for themselves, like the Malays did not matter.
And in the process they introduced new values and thinking, which are still effective till today, so much so that the Malays in both countries had looked and appeared totally different than each other, other than the same Islamic faith they share together, without which, the peoples of the two countries might as well not call themselves Malays. Our common religion is what still binds us together.
But the political leaders from both countries are still oblivious to the fact and how the two countries and its peoples have been so divided.
All it takes now is for some petty issue related mostly to cultural matters and traditional cultural heritage to erupt before some people in Jakarta get flared up.
Malaysia and Indonesia must encourage its top filmmakers, authors and journalists and others to continue forming alliances through their everyday practice, in order not to allow those who are not qualified to take the same route to the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta to express their thoughts and ideas.
By Mansor Puteh
The problems which Indonesia has with Malaysia are mostly of the same type starting with some demonstrations by a small group of Indonesians outside of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta and going into their newspapers and ending later on in the blogs where there is a free for all.
They are petty issues that had been turned into unnecessary controversies by the media in Indonesia, for nothing other than to flame up some people in Indonesia, hoping that these could rally them to become better Indonesians who are seen to be more patriotic and nationalistic.
Alas, what they can only manage to do is to burn the flags of a country that had provided jobs to millions of their countrymen who willingly come to Malaysia to pursue their dream with many willing to pay scores of thousands of ringgit in order that they can be smuggled into the country.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the two countries are still not able to accept these petty controversies for what they are and find solutions that are long-lasting which can ultimately ensure that the same controversies are not repeated.
How many Malaysian flags had been burnt or stepped upon outside of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta? Were they done by the same small crowd of Indonesians, or different ones?
Chances are, all those who had done that and will do something like that are those who had not come to work in Malaysia, either legally or illegally.
While those who had come here to work here for many years, and returned to Indonesia, would not dare do something like that, or else they could be seen to be ungrateful to Malaysia that had provided them with jobs that paid them a lot more than what they could get in Indonesia, for which they are now able to enjoy a better life in their own country with some having their own shops and houses and other properties.
Strangely, those who are better qualified are not known to have done the same, by going to the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta other than to conduct official business and not to burn the Malaysian flag or to step on it.
And how many Indonesians in Malaysia would want to do that outside of Wisma Putra in Putrajaya to support the actions of their counterparts in Jakarta?
You can never find Malaysians who had studied and lived in America to go to the American embassy in Jalan Tun Razak to demonstrate. You only find those who did not make it there.
On the other hand, one can never find those Malaysians who had studied and lived in England to demonstrate outside of the British high commission in Jalan Ampang to do the same. Yet, they are willing to go to the American embassy to voice their displeasure against the American government.
Meanwhile the leaders from Malaysia try to diffuse the problem and hope it will end and new disputes will not erupt in the near future. They do not know what to do besides doing that.
And the comments I have heard from the commentators from both sides are not apt either; they do not deal with the real issue which they thought are major ones when they are in fact, petty ones.
There is a more pressing concern on this matter and it is one which cries for unity and greater understanding.
Unfortunately, the psychologists, sociologists and historians are not able to see the problems from this perspective as they deal mostly with those problems which are sexual in nature.
So this is where I come in.
The demonstrations in front of the Malaysian embassy are really about the cry for this and nothing more.
And that the authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia have not done much or anything at all to promote greater unity and understanding between our two peoples, especially amongst fellow Malays and Muslims.
Diplomatic initiatives alone are not sufficient, because they are purely for media satisfaction and do not solve the core problem as stated immediately above.
There is a greater need for both countries to look at the whole issue in the most simplified way, and that it can be solved permanently by engaging the peoples of the two countries in all areas.
One of which is to encourage the development of the Sinema Nusantara or New Malay Cinema.
In the international context, Muslim countries must introduce and encourage the development of the New Islamic Cinema, without which there can never be Malay and Muslim unity.
I may be biased in this matter, simply because I am trained as a filmmaker. But this proposal is based on the finding I have managed to get from my travels to 33 countries and how Hollywood had indeed united the Americans who are from diverse backgrounds, with many who were from Communist countries.
Yet, they have become true Americans in the shortest period of time, speaking in English only and not in their native languages.
The Malay World is fractured despite it is in the same small region. And the Muslim World, too, is fractured because we do not have any single cinema, where we can share our vision and expand it.
It may sound trite, but the powers of the cinema, is not purely to entertain the viewers, as what the film critics say all the time but more than that, it is an important and interesting medium to promote peace and unity and greater understanding amongst the Malays and Muslims.
I presented a paper, ‘Muslim Cinema as an antithesis to Hollywood’ in the First International Muslim Filmmakers Conference in Tehran, in February, 1994, and this paper can be the basis for the development of the New Malay Cinema and the New Islamic Cinema, and that these two mediums can be used to promote Malay as well as Muslim unity.
I feel sorry for our ‘experts’ who have given their personal and professional views on why the relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia is shaky and that there is no Malay and Muslim unity. Their comments are not intelligent or interesting but predictable and stereotype.
We must go beyond these and come up with something original for a change, because the problems faced by Indonesia and Malaysia and amongst fellow Muslims worldwide, petty as they are, require original thoughts and ideas.
I am afraid the group of 14 from Malaysia and Indonesia that had been assembled by the governments of the two countries, with each supplying seven members each, had failed to do their job which is to find ways on how to promote understanding between our two countries.
This group had met at five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, flying first class each time they travel to each other’s capitals, has taken their own sweet time to deliberate on the issue.
In the meantime, petty issues and controversies had erupted, while they were doing what they are supposed to do; yet no one of them had dared or made any attempt to study the matter, on how they first erupted and how the demonstrations came about and who were their leaders.
If they cannot do this, what else can they do? NOTHING!
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of ringgit have been spent on this hapless group of 14 who cannot ensure us that they could come up with intelligent proposals that can be implemented. I expect them to say something unintelligent and highly predictable.
They will not propose the creation of the New Malay Cinema and the New Islamic Cinema.
The problem with them is that they are old; they represent an earlier generation. And they are not sincere to admit that they are not capable to find ways to promote greater unity and understanding between our two countries.
If they are, then we could have seen what they had initiated when they were younger and while they were in office.
Some of them held high positions in their respective governments, yet, they had not done anything other than to do what was expected.
None of them has been known to have traveled through the length and breadth of the two countries, including their own, to try and touch base with the ordinary folks.
Now it is already too late for them to do so on their own.
I have traveled by land and experienced untold hardship travelling from Banda Aceh in the northernmost part of Sumatera Island all the way across the island, through Jawa Island and arriving on Bali Island.
I can admit that it was not a comfortable experience traveling around Indonesia by land. One needs to have a lot of patience and luck to survive the arduous journey. But it was enjoyable because I wanted to experience it.
Most of the people I met or bumped into along the way gave me a good glimpse of what the whole country wants, although this may not necessarily be what their government in Jakarta wanted, or cared about. They have other plans.
They, like their counterparts in Malaysia as well as in most countries only cared for their personal well-being which centered on the media exposure they can get from their personal initiatives. If they are happy, they think the whole country is happy. How simplistic.
So my suggestion to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia is for them to dump the hapless group of 14, and get another group of men and women who represent the New Malaysia and New Indonesia, who know what the ground wants, and not what their political leaders want or care for.
The English and Dutch had caused the people of Malaysia and Indonesia to be so divided since 1824 when they, on their own volition, signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty and grab whatever country and lands they wanted for themselves, like the Malays did not matter.
And in the process they introduced new values and thinking, which are still effective till today, so much so that the Malays in both countries had looked and appeared totally different than each other, other than the same Islamic faith they share together, without which, the peoples of the two countries might as well not call themselves Malays. Our common religion is what still binds us together.
But the political leaders from both countries are still oblivious to the fact and how the two countries and its peoples have been so divided.
All it takes now is for some petty issue related mostly to cultural matters and traditional cultural heritage to erupt before some people in Jakarta get flared up.
Malaysia and Indonesia must encourage its top filmmakers, authors and journalists and others to continue forming alliances through their everyday practice, in order not to allow those who are not qualified to take the same route to the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta to express their thoughts and ideas.
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