This is How Liberty Dies...With Thunderous Applause

 

Alwyn Lau 

1. A High-Class Stain, Sex and Lies

The movie ‘Tanda Putera’ is a must-watch. It promises to be high-class and even implies a very special class of players. I mean, we’ve got powerful people parade their obscenity and stains (tanda) – how can we not learn anything?

There is this comic strip in which three men are asked what they enjoy doing in their free time. The comic strip shows each person SAYING one thing (e.g. playing an instrument, mountain-hiking, painting the house) but THINKING the same thing: having sex.

Reality, however, is more complex. Given the nature of sexual fantasies, nobody fantasizes by going ‘straight’ to the act immediately. There’s (almost) nothing less arousing than banal sexual intercourse out of the blue. Isn’t the truth somewhat more complicated and less straight-forward? Don’t we all, for instance, weave a narrative of fiction in our sexual fantasies, be it about seduction at the office, at a friend’s house, whilst cooking, or whatever?

The point is, the comic strip had it backwards: It should have shown the men SAYING ”I want to have sex” whilst IMAGINING different scenarios (e.g. in the park, at the symphony, at the backyard, etc.). This would not only be more faithful to what really goes on inside people’s heads but also illuminates the truth that our world cannot survive without fictions. Truths, in fact, require fictions.

Consider how businessmen often ‘dance around’ at the start of negotiations and make all kinds of pointless trivia before casually easing up to the matters at hand. They know that small-talk are not merely siblings – they are twins. And when has any political party ever admitted any of their actions or policies to be politically motivated in the least? Is this because they really think people don’t know? Or could it be because they know that any intelligent voter will be concerned should their favourite party admit to even having political motives at all?

2. The Prince’s Finger and May ’69

Every Malaysian should watch ‘Tanda Putera’ as there’s no better way to expose the truth of how a national leader provoked a crisis in order to maintain power. Lost two-thirds of the parliament? What can the elite do? Simple: Create a national catastrophe, call it a racial riot, declare an Emergency, seize full power and ensure one’s rivals cannot rise again.

Darth Sidius would be so proud. And now those proud of this legacy want to brag. The descendants of the oppressor can’t help but show off.

But nobody can say this ‘in public’. So they’ve got to make do with a movie in which the key perpetrator of the violence itself is painted as a compassionate leader making ‘tough decisions’ about how to govern a society drowning in violence. Watching the trailer, I can just hear the main characters thinking out loud,

“Oh, Malaysia is so complex and difficult to govern, hor? We’ve just survived turbulent times and people are restless and troubled blahblahblah. And the cracks in society have caused these upheavals in our ‘beloved’ country (and Tunku just won’t quit, will he?). And I, the DPM (and the other people in the movie who just happen to look better than the average Malaysian) am faced with an oh-so-critical task of ‘stabilising’ the country. How painful! How necessary!”

Can someone pass the popcorn?

3. His Highness’ Thing and the Revenge of Barisan

So don’t miss the movie. Whislt the guy behind you kicks your back, ask why the security forces were kicking back, relaxing and only showed up on the scene in July i.e. two full months after the start of the riots.

When some sub-smart dude loudly answers his smart phone, note how the film will neglect to connect the subtle-smart dots between the riots and the rise of the New Economic Policy - one of Asia Pac’s most unassuming tools for wealth and power accumulation by a certain class.

Whilst you’re finishing your soft-drink, ask how our second PM’s hard-edged power squad (also known as the National Operations Council, the NOC, a direct result of the riots) to put in force the concept of ‘ketuanan Melayu’ (the sugar-coat for institutional racism which has fattened a small group and left most unsatisfied – and some constantly hungry e.g. the orang asli).

Finally, when the theater lights come on, reflect on how the NOC made freedom of speech go dark (at least on certain topics) i.e. try to question the rights of certain kings to own multiple palaces whilst thousands live in poverty and you’ll know what I mean.

‘Tanda Putera’ struts the truth of naked power in the form of historical fiction. The present regimes loves it notbecause it’s false but because it hints at the truth of their illegitimate grab for power – and how they got away with it. Even though we’re almost six decades away from that event, we can almost hear the Barisan contingent (led by Razak) reciting what the Sith Lord declared towards the end of Star Wars III :

“Now the war is over...We stand on the threshold of a new beginning. In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic (i.e. true democracy?) will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire (1Malaysia?), for a safe and secure society, which I assure you will last for ten thousand years...”

I’ll be surprised if the FELDA settlers are the only ones who’ll get free tickets. Because when liberty dies, its killers can’t help craving (Tanda-rous) applause.