On October 30, Namewee released the trailer to his latest film, Babi, which depicts a massive school racial riot that took place in 2000. According to the trailer, it had been covered up by the government, so no one has ever heard of it before.
Watch the trailer below:
As much as I enjoy reading conspiracies, I still take information validity seriously. Of all the things journalism has taught me is the importance of verification.
I went scouring all over the Internet for Malaysia school violence. True enough, gangsterism and delinquency were prominent among secondary schoolers between the late 90s to early 2000s. I eventually found an IPS News article written on 9 June 2000 listing several incidences, in which one caught my attention quickly:
Source: IPS News
Whether the story is real or not, there is some truth in it, especially about our country and its people.
Sure, It May Be Gruesome
There are no sources confirming the film being officially banned in Malaysia, but the PN Youth Wing has lodged a report against Namewee over sensitive language used in the poster.
Since they have also asked MCMC to block any materials related to it, the film clearly doesn't sit well with them.
Its situation might become similar to the TikTok viral Megan is Missing (I DO NOT RECOMMEND WATCHING IT).
"...that the availability of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good." — New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification on their decision to ban the film in 2011.
In Babi's case, perhaps that showing racial violence will be "injurious to Malaysia by causing interracial tension".
I am expecting the film to be quite graphical based on the scenes in the trailer, but I'm all for its purpose.
The Thing Is, We Need To Learn
As a day so dark that officials can't even give an exact number of casualties, May 13 should have served as a lesson: "Oh, so that's our problem! Let's learn from it!"
Source: FMT.com
My parents, who were born 2 to 3 years after 1969, did learn about May 13 in their secondary school years, but it was taught through only two sentences in their textbooks (according to them).
The KBSM syllabus I learnt was introduced in 2003, yet the history textbooks mentioned the incident only once and without a single background to it:
Source: Buku Teks Sejarah Tingkatan 5, Bab 8, Muka Surat 210
I remember seeing it going: Wait, that's it? That's all you're telling me? Where are the details?????
Then, history goes ahead in repeating itself in 2001 when Kampung Medan faced a similar violent episode. It was a scuffle between a Malay and an Indian family, with various external factors sowing the seeds of their angers.
We, or at least the generations born after the riots, never properly learnt because there was not enough information about it. We could not hold May 13 as something significant to ourselves. This gap in knowledge prevented us from realising how fragile our unity has always been and fostering a crucial need to improve it.
(Fortunately, Malaysiakini released an in-depth cover story about May 13 last year, which you should read.)
And Address The Racial Discord
I see Babi as also a way to address the fact that racial discord still exists in this country.
The three main races have been at each other's necks for as long as history goes back. We have never stopped treating each other as thorns in our flesh. We still can't stand being the losing end while another is at its peak advantage. We are still so ever obsessed with this ridiculous competition our forefathers created.
We have to point out this problem.
Because It's Now or Never
"A Nation must believe in three things: It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future." — President Franklin D. Roosevelt
To learn what went wrong years ago, we must see it as it is.
It is uncomfortable to display the most shameful and barbaric part of our history, but racial violence is difficult to be portrayed as something positive. Take Schindler's List for an example. Violent, gorey and distrubing is what people have described it as, but that is the honest truth about the Holocaust.
Namewee's Babi is providing us a good opportunity with this.
If the film were to be banned for real, it is not only be a pity, but would also say a lot about our authorities — their ignorance and failure to acknowledge problems time after time.
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