An obscene political show

Cultural performances during the Chinese New Years should not be erotic shows exposing breasts and hips and pornography is never a Chinese culture. Once again, the rights of women has been played with, culture has been trampled and issues have been exploited by politicians.

By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

An erotic dance in conjunction with the Chinese New Year had recently been staged in Kulim, Kedah.

Sexy showgirls indistinctly exposed their breasts and hips while drastically shaking to the music at a corner of the street.

Some of the crowd were shocked to see an uncle wearing a political party shirt actually became so high and stepped forward to approach the girls, and shook his 50-inch hips with them.

The showgirls went further to drag a few little boys and girls to join them shaking their hips after a burst of clamour.

It reminded me of the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips written by Chinese novelist Mo Yan. If the Nobel Prize for Literature winner were there, he might be able to write another award-winning novel after watching the obscene scene.

The scene did not only reflect the human nature of erotic desire, but as well show the absurd political show of Malaysia.

The performance was initiated by a Kedah PKR Chinese state executive councilor. He invited showgirls for the erotic dance to prove that the PAS state government respected Chinese culture and did not forbid performances by female performers.

Some people might think that, as a Chinese and a man, we should be proud of the move of upholding the "Chinese culture", while our heart beating fast for the dance.

However, I did not know why, my heart sank without even a trace of excitement. Instead, I felt the surge of lingering sorrow.

The ignorance of politicians and the absurdity of political shows have actually come to this point.

Months ago, the Chinese community expressed their collective dissatisfaction over the Chinese New Year celebration guidelines of the PAS state government.

The people opposed to the restrictions of the guidelines, including banning adult female performers and live bands while limiting only to religious and specific songs.

The guidelines were said to have discriminated against women and people were worried that it was part of the state government's move of Islamisation, which was applied also to non-Muslims.

However, no one said that Chinese New Year celebrations should have sexy performers and erotic performances and no one takes pornography and obscenity as Chinese culture.

It is strange that when the state government announced the guidelines, the Chinese exco did not say a word. After being chased after by reporters for a few days and was finally contacted, he claimed that he knew nothing about it.

We actually do not understand what is he doing as an exco.

After the state government revoked the guidelines out of pressure, the exco suddenly became so brave and took the initiative to organise a show to prove that the state government is very open-minded and respects Chinese culture.

To show his justness, leaders of confronting parties were invited to attend the show.

In fact, he should invite Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak and Datuk Hamdan Mohd Khalid, the state executive councillor in charge of culture and arts, to appreciate the so-called "Chinese cultural show".

If Azizan and Hamdan were there, from the view of being responsible, they should be remorseful for revoking the guidelines.

Cultural performances during the Chinese New Years should not be erotic shows exposing breasts and hips and pornography is never a Chinese culture. Once again, the rights of women has been played with, culture has been trampled and issues have been exploited by politicians.

Honestly, as a Chinese, I feel humiliated.