WE ARE NOT LOOKING AT EACH OTHER OFTEN ENOUGH TO REALLY KNOW WHO WE ARE
– NO THANKS TO THE MEDIA IN MALAYSIA
By Mansor Puteh
May be this matter has escaped everybody’s
attention, especially the policy makers, for the issue is quite petty really.
Television, or more
specifically, Malaysian television, which to many is just for the government to
relay information to the public, and for the stations to broadcast programs of
all sorts to enable them to earn as much advertising revenue as possible.
However, this is often done without due care.
The end result is that
we, as a people of many diverse racial backgrounds and interesting
peculiarities, are still strangers amongst ourselves and can be said to be
unfamiliar with our different and sometimes strange likes and dislikes.
We only relate with each
other socially bumping in the streets without really caring or too concerned
about each other’s presence and concerns.
I cannot watch
television if I want to see the faces of our Chinese and Indian friends and
those of the other minor races and groups that we have in the country. For they
are not represented on television, except for the faces of the broadcasters who
read the news bulletin or who appear in some talk shows and other minor
programs.
And I cannot fully
appreciate the fact that Malaysian television still, after forty-four years of
its existence, favors to promote alien faces on the screen – the faces of the
Chinese, Indians and the Americans, in particular, as opposed to the
Malaysians of all races.
The problem is that
Malaysian television, since its inception in 1963 has become more of a tool for
the stations to over-promote alien cultures, peoples and their ways which often
come with their peculiar social, cultural as well as psychology.
The main problem is
because many of those who operate these stations are not fully qualified, or
those who have the necessary academic qualification and professional experience
to run any television station. They end up doing what their predecessors had
done, i.e. by going to the film and television markets in Europe, America and Hong Kong
to buy all sorts of programs by the busloads, so to speak, so that they can
show them throughout the year.
What they are doing in
effect is to continue encouraging Malaysians to be lazy to produce their own
home-bred programs of all types and sorts, so we can become self-sufficient in
television programming, while they cruise along easy street without having to
worry about getting enough programs to show on their television.
How naive of
them! Don’t they realize what they are doing which is also to promote the
television and film industries of those countries while helping them to create
more employment to their creative people?
What these television
stations and their executives are doing is to lower their personal stature and
become lackeys for the program producers in Hong Kong ,
India and America
Is this what they want
to be called? Can’t they use their televisions to promote the development of
local talent so they can come up with more meaningful programs that are liked
by viewers of all races, instead of breaking them into the three major groups
plus the Americanized viewers, by showing programs for the Malays, Chinese,
Indians and the English-speaking Malaysians and those who are fascinated with
things American or western?
It was I who asked why
the stations had broken the programs in this country in the ‘Malay, Chinese,
Indian and American belts’. They later turned the same four belts into colors
or imageries that still reflect their racial backgrounds.
This set up clearly
shows the unconscious act by the television stations, acting in concert with
their advertising agencies to segregate the viewers in this country into the
three major racial groups plus the American or western group.
I wish to see the
Malaysian belts to replace all those belts so all the major programs of all
sorts that are broadcast everyday on Malaysian television can be appreciated by
all Malaysians regardless of who they are.
If this cannot be done,
then there is no hope for anyone in this country to use the medium of
television to bring all Malaysians together, so that in time we will be
able to look at each other more and appreciate who we are, without having to
look in such awe of those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, India and especially,
America.
This may be good if we
only wish to study how those who live in other countries are doing and it is
only necessary for us to know them, but up to a certain point, beyond which we
have to start to turn around and look back at our own selves.
And this is where
Malaysian can be said to have been negligent. It may have also created
insecurities amongst many Malaysians, which should not have happened in the
first place.
In
short, the Malays have not seen or looked at the other races, especially the
Chinese and Indians good enough to really and truly appreciate who they are.
The
same can be said of the non-Malays who are always looking elsewhere especially
at the Chinese, Indians and Americans and other foreigners, that they simply do
not have time to appreciate what the Malays have to offer them.
Malaysian
television, I dare say, you are one of the major reasons why Malaysians hardly
look at each other.
The television stations
have only showed programs from Hong Kong , India and America
The
Malays, have also found it difficult to fully relate to the Chinese and Indians
in this country, while watching television because the Chinese and Indians that
we always see on television are not those who are amongst us, Malaysians, but
foreigners, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and lately ‘Chinese’ from South
Korea; and Indians from Mumbai and India, who are all alien to the Malays, whom
the Malays can not relate to or fully understand what they really want, other
than to sing and dance and other times cry over petty social and cultural
issues.
The
worst culprit is Malaysian radio which is conveniently introduced to support
the notion that in order to operate a radio station, they have to appeal to
just one particular race, instead of all of them.
The
print media is also responsible for the racial division where the
English-language publications often over-promote foreign cultures, especially
those from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, India and America, too, like without them,
Malaysians will be uncultured and whose worldview will be shallow.
What
we can all see in our newspapers especially the English-language and vernacular
ones are news and other stories on foreigners in their own countries, but less
on Malaysians.
It
seems that Malaysians make news only when they are involved in any type of
personal or group tragedies or if there is a scandal of any sort. The types of
news Malaysians can make are very limited. We have to be foolish to get into
the newspapers.
If
we are smart, there is little likelihood for it to be highlighted by the local
media, which are too eager to publish even gossips of foreign artistes whom we
do not know of, especially those that relate to their unhealthy and immoral
lifestyles.
One
particular English language tabloid is so fascinated and excited to act on
behalf of the western fashion designers, like they are paid to do the job of
promoting their clothes brands. This paper hardly publishes stories on the
Malays except those who face tragedies of any sort.
Malaysian
television has caused a major flaw in the psyche and thinking of all Malaysians
regardless of whether they are Malays, Chinese, Indians or the others.
Malaysians
must be made to fully appreciate each other’s peculiarities in the media and on
television and radio everyday and not just when there are religious and
cultural or nationalistic festivals, where we would gather to eat together.
We
must see ourselves more on television and in the cinema.
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