Kudos, Sasha, hopefully there are more women like you

 

From Ibrahim M Ahmad

Two women startled me with their comments over the past week. Interestingly, both were comments made in respect of a third woman.

That third woman, Taylor Swift, is no ordinary human.

Her ongoing Eras Tour involves 152 shows across five continents. It commenced almost a year ago now on March 17 in Arizona, and will conclude on Dec 8 this year.

That’s a whole 18 months of three-hour performances in a production consisting of 44 songs grouped into 10 distinct acts with each act conceptualising one of her albums.

Six of those shows are being held in Singapore, with the last one set to take place on March 9. Malaysians I know who were present called it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Ironically, the biggest non-event in Malaysia has dominated the news almost exclusively over the past week. Taylor Swift was not hidden among the lifestyle pages, she was front and centre in the political stories.

Former sports minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu called it a “missed opportunity”. The Bersatu deputy president may be a lot of things, but he is not necessarily the poster boy for an Islamic state in the same vein as his PAS counterparts in the opposition bloc.

Faizal was swiftly rebuked by his successor in the youth and sports ministry, Hannah Yeoh. “Glad PN now openly talks about concert benefits. Be consistent and stop protesting,” she said on X.

The minister went on to claim that since December 2022, her focus has been to look into much needed repairs at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, including “(purchasing) canvas and (solving) flooding to avoid using dustpans during the rain”.

“Basic stuff, you know, before the lights come on for the big stars,” she added. Wow. Quite a loaded statement.

So, it was amusing to read a subsequent story on FMT about how the government was overseeing a contract between entertainment giant AEG’s affiliate, ASM Global, Sportswork Group Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Stadium Corporation (PSM), aimed at converting the Kuala Lumpur Sports City in Bukit Jalil into a regional sports and entertainment hub.

Based on reports, it appears that the contract was later dumbed down into “supporting overall venue management”.

I suppose what that means is that the Malaysia government did not prioritise the entertainment industry as a means of generating revenue.

That is indeed a missed opportunity as reports suggest that live entertainment contributed 6.8% to the country’s GDP in the pre-pandemic years. Imagine what it would have done to the national coffers now.

It took former deputy domestic trade and consumer affairs minister Chong Chieng Jen, a colleague of Hannah at DAP, to explain why. He said PAS would have protested against the concert and “obsessed” over her wardrobe choices.

So, it can be deduced that the decision was a political one.

The unity government, despite its two-third majority, chose not to focus on Swift, or AEG’s pull factor of other A-list international artistes, to ward off a backlash from PAS which would have affected its Islamic credentials.

Is this what a moderate government looks like in 2024?

It is ironic that we have had to look to people in the Malay-Muslim centric opposition for some common sense. But it is heartening that there are younger leaders in Bersatu who are prepared to show the way.

There is no doubt that this was, as Faizal said, a missed opportunity.

And kudos to another young Malay leader, Bersatu’s Sasha Lyna Abdul Latiff, for bravely calling out the government for its lack of “basic economic and common sense”, and the more myopic members of her own party for attempting to shush her into silence.

In a previous letter, I suggested that our present batch of Malay leaders and their advisers are unlikely to ever have what it takes to boost the economy going forward.

It is heartening to see that there are young Malay leaders, like Sasha, waiting in the wings for an opportunity to restore moderate Malaysia.

It is such a pity that no one in the coalitions that form the unity government was brave enough to do likewise.

Kudos, Sasha. Hopefully there are more women in Malaysia like you.

Happy International Women’s Day. - FMT

Ibrahim M Ahmad is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.