The fiasco involving British pop-rock band, The 1975, has taken the vetting of foreign artistes in Malaysia to new heights of absurdity.
Despite the bizarre on-stage meltdown by the group’s provocative frontman Matt Healy in several countries, they were allowed to perform here.
Did the central agency for application for filming and performance by foreign artistes (Puspal) miss, or overlook, the serial spite of Healy?
At the Good Vibes music festival in Sepang on Friday, Healy caused a furore when he locked lips onstage with his bandmate and launched a tirade against Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws.
His horrible behaviour also included smoking and drinking alcohol, spitting on the stage, as well as stomping on a drone.
Puspal, a body under the communications and digital ministry, is now attempting to distance itself from the approval it had given to the group.
It has lodged a police report against the band and the organisers, Future Sound Asia, over their negligence and failure to comply with the terms set by the government.
Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil penalised fans by cancelling the three-day event, and food vendors who rented space at the venue suffered losses.
So, is Puspal, the authority which had actually given credibility to Healy and his band, off the hook?
For Puspal to say Healy’s action was an insult that disregarded the country’s laws goes back straight to the agency’s failure to protect sensitivities.
The 1975’s application was rejected on June 22, but was approved weeks later after the organiser vouched for the band in writing that there will be full compliance of the rules.
It is imperative that Puspal come clean on whether they knew anything at all about Healy’s past nastiness or whether the organiser had made a full disclosure.
Healy’s decadent foreign influence over the years was not just confined to the 2019 concert in Dubai, where he ventured into the crowd and kissed a male fan on the lips in protest of the strident anti-LGBTQ laws there.
He later told British media he did not regret his act of defiance, and that he and the rest of the band fled Dubai at five in the morning.
Dubai police had planned to arrest him as homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates, but in Malaysia, where it is also a crime, police allowed him to leave the country a free man.
Puspal should have avoided the risk of Healy repeating his homosexual stunt and paid cognisance to the fact that he was not remorseful.
Jerks like Healy who aren’t properly punished will be emboldened to break the law again.
Over the years, Healy has demonstrated a knack for stirring the hornet’s nest with his blunt remarks about a country’s laws and its people, and his unprofessional conduct.
Examples are plentiful, such as the time in Las Vegas he pulled a female fan on stage and planted a kiss on her mouth. The next day he kissed a male fan during a show in San Diego.
In Denmark, he knelt in front of a security guard and kissed him on the lips, and on another occasion, he sucked a girl’s thumb.
Examples of his kissing, while usually drunk, are plentiful, so there was always the risk that this incorrigible kisser would do the same here.
Healy has been open about his experiences with substance misuse, and once told his bandmates, “you need to respect my drug addiction”. Those words alone raise red flags.
In 2019, he caused an uproar in South Korea when he posted a mirror selfie of himself stepping on the Korean flag that fans gave him at his concert.
We don’t want immoral values for our children, whether Muslim or not, and in the case of The 1975, the authorities have failed us.
Even our queer community is like, “hey, we don’t understand why you did that and we really didn’t need your help”.
The government’s move to ban The 1975 from performing in Malaysia has come too late, and the announcement sounds like a title of the band’s album, “Being Funny in a Foreign Language.” - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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