'Sabotaging of Tanda Putera ruins local film industry'

The film Tanda Putera has been unfairly judged by those who have not even watched it in the cinema, its director Shuhaimi Baba lamented. 

She said that lampooning the film based on stills posted on the film’s official Facebook page is an act of “sabotage” as most of the “technical faults” raised had already been rectified in post-production. 

Worse still, she said, the acts of “sabotage” not only hurt Tanda Putera, but also the local film industry. 

According to Shuhaimi (left), the pictures the critics had used were uploaded onto the page “months ago to show scenes in the film when it was only 60 percent ready, before applying CGI (computer-generated imagery).”

She said that all items or buildings inappropriate to the period setting pointed out by the critics had been mostly removed following CGI work.

“The ‘mistakes’ are no longer in the film, but the critics did not watch the film,” she said, slamming them for using the pictures without approval from the filmmaker.

In fact, she said, there were only two props which were not period appropriate, but no one has pointed it out and that one has to watch the film at least “twice or thrice” to notice it. 

“There are also epic films from the west which clearly show inappropriate props, like microphones, but no one has complained,” she lamented. 

She was commenting on pictures circulating on the Internet, pointing out there were props used in Tanda Putera not appropriate to the period setting. The film is set in the period 1969 to 1976. 

Understand local filmmmakers’ struggles

The award-winning director also slammed critics for trying to “politicise” everything. 

“We are only filmmakers, and not contesting in the election. We need to feed ourselves, too. If you don’t want to watch the film, that’s fine, but stop sabotaging it. 

“What has happened to Malaysian netizens that they have lost their humanity, and are unreasonable and cruel? We can accept critiques and reviews but maligning it is not a critique,” she said. 

She also urged Malaysians to understand the struggle that local filmmakers have to face, especially when it comes to historical films which may not appeal to the young. 

“Slandering and inciting (hatred) not only affects our rice bowls, but also hurts the local industry,” she said, urging all to support local films.

Tanda Putera opened on Aug 28, after several delays, following protests that it contained contentious scenes. 

Last week, the Penang government issued an “advisory” to all cinema operators in the state not to screen the film, which it says contains historical inaccuracies. 

Scenes from May 13

Although largely an attempt to explore the relationship between second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein and his deputy Ismail Abdul Rahman prior to their deaths, a significant portion of the film features the May 13, 1969 riots. 

Among the scenes related to the riots are communists torturing a man to make him boycott the 1969 polls, Chinese men beating up an Umno worker, police shooting dead a Chinese man, demonstrations by the DAP and Gerakan and a group of unidentified Chinese youths urinating on a flagpole. 

The flagpole on which the men urinated was at the Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris’ home, and that it happened at night, before the riots broke out. 

In the next scene, Harun is shown complaining to Abdul Razak about it, and warning him that the Malays were losing their patience.

Moments later, a Malay man slashes a Chinese man with a machete while Chinese men attack Malay men and women in a cinema.