JUNE 18 — I remember watching television when I was little, around primary school age, at home. There were only three channels on television back then.
One of the most popular shows at that time was a Malay sitcom called “Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu”. I’m sure many are familiar with it.
It’s sort of an institution in Malaysia these days and there has even been a musical produced which goes by the same title.
When I watched it, it was with my parents in the living room. I really didn’t understand the jokes. I would laugh whenever they did.
But I slowly understood what the show was all about. It was really about defining ourselves as true Malaysians.
For the unacquainted, the show was about the daily lives of the people living in a fictional residential flats building called Flat Seri Wangi.
Let’s go through the main characters (as well as I can remember) and their identities. I have to say, it was a very “accurate” depiction of Malaysia.
Pak Uda was the quintessential tea stall owner, always a Malay guy, trying to be tidy by wearing a shirt but still messy with unaligned buttons and a stained apron.
The two people who frequented the stall the most were two unemployed men named Budin and Mat Deris. Guess what race they are?
We’ve identified the Malay characters. Then there are the characters that help us to identify our other fellow Malaysians better.
The Chinese-accented Lucy who works at, of all places, a hair salon. And the goofy-voiced Indian man Ravi, you guessed it, runs a driving school.
When I was in school, I would laugh at all my Indian friends who spoke Malay with Ravi’s accent and shook their heads funnily.
The funny thing is, I never made fun of my Chinese and Malay friends. Maybe that’s because I’m part Malay and Chinese.
But of course, “Pi Mai Pi Mai Tang Tu” was a comedy. And like all good comedies, they played with racial stereotypes as a form of social critique.
But racial stereotypes become dangerous when they enter parts of the media where they’re not supposed to be.
When racism enters journalism and news organisations starts taking a stand to promote one race over the other, is when it gets dangerous.
When racism starts creeping into television shows and movies to influence the people subconsciously, is when it gets dangerous.
When the media doesn’t see what is going on and allow others to spread their racist messages, is when it gets dangerous.
We all want the media to change for the better. But they (the media) have always had their agendas and will always stick to it.
Or maybe, it’s all okay because everything is just comedy anyway.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
