COLLAPSE OF THE OLD MALAYAN CINEMA BASED THEN IN SINGAPORE AND THE 13 MAY, 1969 TRAGEDY. – PART II.

By Mansor Puteh

Unfortunately, the stand of the Indians today is pretty much the same as their forefathers did but those amongst them who have moved away from such thinking is increasing in numbers with only some of those who still had a ‘rubber estate’ mentality who want to continue to feel marginalized, as those Chinese who still insist on marginalizing themselves.

But alas, it was due to politics and not commerce or economics, unless if these Chinese who are in the opposition such as the DAP including some who are in Barisan such as MCA and Gerakan, who still think their race is still being marginalized.

Didn’t they know how the Melayu had deliberately wanted to make them prosper?

Didn’t they know how Tunku had deliberately chosen Chinese to become the first two finance ministers, who had done a lot to  ensure the Chinese dominate the economy of the country so they who did not have possessions of money, business and land were encouraged to do so?

This was done at the expense of the Melayu, who it turned out later became enraged by what their forefathers had done to marginalize them in the country their forefathers and ancestors.

Where did the Indians get such an idea from that they were marginalized?

They were meant to be in the rubber estates as that was the deal they got from the British colonists who wanted them to come from their remote villages in India to work as laborers and virtual slaves of the British rubber plantation owners in Malaya then.

So why did they have to complain later about the deal? There was a contract that they had agreed to accept.

But despite all the failings, the Malayans then comprising of the major Melayu and minor, Chinese and Indian races were united in spirit. The level of discontent was low and restricted only to some political discourses when some chose to flee modernization to serve their chosen and course from deep in the jungles.

These Chinese and some Melayu were the ‘selected’ few who were bent on changing the course of the country’s history.

This they were able to do up to 2 December, 1989, when their group calling itself, the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) officially seized to exist with their senior leaders appearing in public for the first time looking debonair and stylish like successful businessmen in a hotel in Songkhla, South Siam, when they should have been paraded much earlier outside of the Pudu Prison in Kuala Lumpur in less appealing surroundings.

The Malayan leaders were busy doing other things and also having fun, which also included enjoying the cinema – the Old Malaya Cinema – which was based in Jalan Ampas and East Coast Road in Singapore, with Tunku himself dabbling into it as a screenwriter having written ‘Mahsuri’ and ‘Raja Bersiong’ which were produced by Shaw Brothers’ Malay Film Productions (MFP).

Unfortunately, he and the other political leaders didn’t realize how the cinema then was holding the people together, when even the Chinese and Indians were ardent viewers of films produced by MFP and Cathay-Keris owned by Loke Wan Tho.

They didn’t realize how the cinema was binding the two major and one minor race together in Malaya to create a potent force.

Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood were not important influences in Malaya then.

There certainly were some interesting dramatic and colorful elements in Malaya then which was supposed to be independent or Merdeka, but which was still uncertain as to what course it was to take.

Barely a few years after the collapse of the old Malayan cinema based in Jalan Ampas, Singapore, racial strife was rampant culminating in the 13 may, 1969 incident.

So can the government learn something useful from this?

Or do they want to continue to develop the economy of the country just to enrich those who are in business, commerce and banking?

Does the country need more people to go into politics where the roads are many, or does it need to get more of their own kind to go into the film industry?

But I doubt it if the government and the other politicians will want to accept facts; their level of awareness of the arts is so low.

They only know how to use or misuse some of the starlets who are willing to become their third or fourth wives and invite some others to grace their functions.

But they do not know what else that they can use with the cinema.

It has done wonders to America with their Hollywood, which is a major industry.

It became so because their early leaders had ensured that this industry was developed so that it could become a huge sponge to absorb all the latent and useless creative and artistic energies so that they did not spill over to politics.

If that was not done, almost every other person in America will be politically charged and in every other county there is a political forum or ‘ceramah’ every night like what is happening in Malaysia.

This is where the government and their not so smart economic planners and visionaries lack any understanding of.

They want some film directors to produce wonderful films. But they do not know how to create a system that allows for that to happen.

The cinema can do wonders.

But unfortunately, the political leaders and economists do not want to take this course of action to create and establish the New Malaysian Cinema, New Islamic Cinema and New Melayu Cinema or Sinema Nusantara as they cannot take the lead and have to leave the task to those who are better qualified in film.

The development of these film industries will cause the politicians and economists to lose a lot of credibility; they can be condemned by the Muslim Ummah, Bangsa Melayu and Malaysian society as being people of low stature.

That they are war-mongers and racists and social misfits that they are.