CINEMA BAROMETER TO PROVE THERE IS REAL ASEAN, COMMONWEALTH AND OIC EVERYDAY COHESION AND UNDERSTANDING.

…HOW MUTUAL COOPERATION AMONGST THE PEOPLE IN THESE REGIONS ARE STILL AT THE IMAGINED STATE WITH AMERICA AND AMERICANISM BENEFITTING THE MOST.

By Mansor Puteh

Political leaders will think there is real everyday cohesion and understanding between the countries in the ASEAN region, amongst the Organization of Islamic Council (OIC) and Commonwealth countries, if the more they meet and pose for group photos and coming up with joint communiqués or referendums.

Don’t they realize that their countries are not actually at par with each other in development and how their own people seem to be alien to the cultures of their neighboring countries?

It is therefore ironic, how the young in their own countries including themselves are awed not of their own cultures and history, but that of America and the other countries in the West.

Is this therefore not proof that the ASEAN, OIC and Commonwealth leaders are not so smart?

The fact that they still insist on leading the pack to true salvation of their own countries and not to share the burden with the leaders of the industry including using the cinema, proofs that they are not so smart in their effort to enhance the well-being and development of their own countries.

America and Britain are indeed playing dead in this regard; they know they have got what they had wanted, which is to squeeze the countries they try to relate to but by without asking them to do more than to get the leaders of ASEAN, OIC and Commonwealth to meet every two years, with them attending to prove that they are with them.

The real barometer to show that there is real cooperation between the people of these three regions can and must be seen in the cinema which is the real barometer to show if this indeed happening.

The cinema, unlike the ASEAN Summits, OIC Conferences and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting or CHOGMs are not the real barometers.

If so, why then the peoples in the countries in these three regions or groups still do not enjoy greater understanding and cooperation on all levels and on an everyday basis?

The truth is those meetings by heads of governments are just for show. They do not mean much, or else they would have achieved wonders.

They have only succeeded in bringing the leaders of those countries together and also those of America and some other countries which have veto power in the United Nations Security Council.

But there is no real cooperation on the ground, amongst the people and on an everyday basis.

In fact, the real winners or the country that has benefited the most from the meetings of the three groups of countries is – AMERICA!

America and Americanism benefit the most from the regional and international grouping.

It is the Commonwealth which laid the framework for the scope of how America had managed to spread its Americanism to the countries which were once British colonies.

It is also the Commonwealth; due to its leaders incompetence had allowed America to benefit the most.

It is also ironic how America is not in the Commonwealth, once known as the British Commonwealth, and not Britain itself.

The reason being the British leaders simply do not know how to further their interests, leaving it to the other members to do.

But alas, the leaders of the Commonwealth member countries only know how to party during the weekend they meet in each other’s city, without achieving anything or much.

So the end result in the spread of Americanism throughout the Commonwealth countries.

And it is further enhanced by the incompetence of the ASEAN and OIC leaders who also end up partying on weekends their organizations meet every two years in each other’s city.

The ASEAN, OIC and Commonwealth leaders really do not know how to release some of the power or authority to promote goodwill to the industry leaders.

The longer they are ignorant of this, the more they will misuse their positions as leaders of their respective countries to benefit America and Americanism more than their own.

The expansion of American cultural and political influences in these countries were all laid for by the three organizations, without them realizing this and how this could have happened.

None of the leaders of these organizations knew how the real barometer to see if there is indeed everyday communication and understanding between and amongst the people in their countries can be seen in how the ASEAN, New Islamic Cinema and Commonwealth Cinemas could do.

None of them had any passion for the cinema. So no wonder they did not care much what this medium of modern day communication could do to further their interests, which was left to the smarter and more cunning people in America and Hollywood to pursue instead.

This is happening even when the British Cinema is almost dead, with Hollywood overwhelming the entertainment scene in England, leaving the British Cinema without much to show.

So as long as there is no ASEAN Cinema, no New Islamic Cinema and no Commonwealth Cinema, we can say that there is no real understanding and cooperation between and amongst the countries in the three groupings.

What they have is just imagined cooperation and understanding which is stated in their joint communiqués and referendums which do not add to anything substantial.

Why the cinema?

The reason being this artistic activity involves many other industries and cultural and social activities.

It also encompasses the areas concerning the society, history, philosophy, sociology, language, attitude and interaction between the countries which had an interesting history for which they could draw inspiration from to create films and also television dramas and other entertainment programs to share amongst themselves and to create together.

This may be a minor activity to the economists, but the activity truly involve these other activities too, and more importantly they can cause a country and the regions to become better acquainted with their past, either recent or ancient, which are all intertwined, for which they could still benefit from, especially for the students to know who they their ancestors were, as a source of pride which they can use to further enhance bilateral and multilateral ties.

In this way, America and Americanism and former colonial powers could be eliminated from their thinking, so they can develop their own cultures together to counter Americanism and Westernism which have crept into their thinking, which have caused many to become almost paralyzed with fear while adopting an inferiority complex.

There is a lot more that the cinema can do if the ASEAN, New Islamic Cinema and Commonwealth Cinemas could be created and established.

Unfortunately, the leaders of those countries could only think of the cinema as a medium of pure entertainment and diversion.

This is what Hollywood is. This is what they have been using the cinema to achieve, which is to lull the cinema-goers in their own countries and of the others where their films are shown on an everyday basis to think.

They do not want to use the cinema for any other purpose which is stated earlier, as it can defeat Americanism and American as well as Western cultural and social expansionism.