OCT 3 — After one month of fasting and trying our darn best at being holy, things are finally getting back to normal for most Malaysians. One month of most people suddenly behaving all holier than thou on us, going to the mosque on a nightly basis for Tarawih prayers (shame on us if we miss them, they tell us, even if it’s only “sunat” and not “wajib”), trying to finish all 30 “juzuks” (chapters) of the Quran in just one month and the list goes on; we will be back to our normal routines, probably not even completing the compulsory five-times daily prayers, let alone going to the mosque to pray every night, and we’ll probably be lucky to even pick up the Quran at least once a week.
And after one month of selflessly donating money, food and clothes to all sorts of orphanages (Muslim orphanages only of course, the other religions can take care of themselves, right?), we’ll finally get to forget about them for another year until the next Ramadan comes up.
But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop being holier than thou though. Newspaper headlines will still be blaring out sensational things about this or that celebrity caught getting drunk, or caught for khalwat and all sorts of other “immoral” things. Celebrity extra marital affairs and divorces will always be talked about and the talked about celebrity will be happily frowned upon by us moral people.
And the best thing is the reason we all dish when asked about the average Malaysian’s borderline sadistic interest in the private lives of celebrities — “They’re always in the public eye and are actually being thought of as role models by young people, so they should behave themselves.”
Even in interviews, you will hear celebrities and artists themselves dishing out the same reason, probably more out of vanity than anything else in admitting that yes, they belong to the public and are role models for the young, so they must watch what they say and how they act in public.
One of my biggest fantasies is to get the chance to be asked this whole “role model” question, preferably live on TV or on one of those hugely popular TV shows like “Melodi”, and have my answers aired completely unedited or uncensored.
We always complain about how backwards our entertainment scene is, be it music, movies or TV, and have all sorts of theories about why it is so. My theory is simple, we as a nation, and as a people have this unfortunate tendency to expect the worst from other people, and that’s what’s been holding us back all this while.
As a nation of mostly religious people (Rukunegara No. 1 folks — Belief in God — I pity you atheists or agnostics, by virtue of that, can you really call yourself a citizen?), it is absolutely appalling that of everyone else available, we expect artists and celebrities to be role models for the young, not the holy or important figures in our religious beliefs.
When you have Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Jesus Christ, Buddha, and so many other good and highly moral religious and historical figures as your role models, why would you want to have local celebrities like Saleem, Jamal Abdillah or even Datuk Siti Nurhaliza as one? No offence to those named above, but even if your role model is Ustaz Asri (of nasyid group Rabbani), Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is still unquestionably a better role model to have.
We cry foul when photos of local celebrities partying, drinking alcohol, hugging or kissing their boyfriends or girlfriends, or best of all, naked or sex photos of them make rounds on the Internet, but why should we care in the first place?
Artists are here to make art. That’s their whole reason for being in this world. And we measure an artist by the quality of their art, not by what they drink or don’t drink, or by whom they sleep or party with and all that jazz. Their job is to create great art, simple as that. Whether they live righteously or not is not something for us to be concerned with. That is between them and God (whoever their God or your God is), and it should always stay that way.
If the art they create is great, they’re still great artists no matter how debauched their lifestyle is. Imagine if Mick Jagger or Ravi Shankar were Malaysian, would they get the chance to be the legends that they are now despite their notorious reputation for “sowing their seeds of love” all over the world? I bet they wouldn’t even last long because everyone would be busy boycotting or blacklisting them because they’re “immoral” and won’t make good role models for young Malaysians.
So here’s my point. By focusing on the fickle matters of artists’ and celebrities’ private lives and whether they’re immoral and what not, we have indirectly diverted everyone’s attention (including the artists themselves) onto something that is of no importance at all, and through sheer force of habit have neglected the single most important thing of all, the quality of the art itself.
We’re now mostly too busy trying to maintain a good image or deliver a good message that we’ve ended up making the kind of watered down, safe and bland “art” that just doesn’t interest people much anymore. And then we go blame everyone else but ourselves about how unexciting and backwards our entertainment industry have become.
Where’s the implied sexiness and naughtiness of rock n roll (Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis were naughty) or the provocation in punk rock and art films, or just even that little sense of danger? Just think about it, where has being safe taken us so far? Nowhere, right? Maybe now’s the time to get naughty.
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