Dramafest Producers Mourn for Play’s Loss

Ho Yi Jian | rockjianrock@gmail.com
the ridge transmedia
A NUSSU Publication

• Laremy Lee’s The Last Political Animal found censorship problems with MDA and CFA
• Incredible potential wasted
• Dramafest producers saddened that play cannot be staged

“The Last Political Animal is my favourite play by far, it was the main reason why I signed up to be a producer here at Dramafest,” remarked Chethan Anil, executive producer of Dramafest 2008.

In an interview with the four producers of Dramafest 2008, the producers – Chethan Anil (Engineering, Year 1), Danielle Woong (Business, Year 2), Eva Pillai (Bioengineering, Year 2) and Musaddaq Raibin (Civil Engineering, Year 2) – together with playwright Laremy Lee (English Literature, Year 4) and director Desiree Choo (Psychology, Year 2), expressed their disappointment over the effective censorship of The Last Political Animal.

Four producers, a playwright and a director.
(Top from left to right): Laremy Lee, Chethan Anil and Mussadaq Raibin. Bottom: Danielle Woong, Eva Pillai, and Desiree Choo

Photo Credits: Ho Yi Jian

Laremy’s The Last Political Animal was slated to be part of the six plays at Dramafest, a collaborative drama event staged by three halls of residence on campus – Eusoff Hall, Kent Ridge Hall and King Edward VIII Hall.

Even though the Media Development Authority (MDA) finally gave the play permission to be staged after suggestion numerous changes to the script, the go-ahead only came four days before the production.

For the producers, that was several days too late – the decision had already been made to replace The Last Political Animal with I Fake It In Bed, also written by Desiree Choo, a resident of Eusoff Hall.

Limits of Political Sensitivity

When quizzed on why the play might have been axed, Eva Pillai, a producer from Eusoff Hall, explained that the MDA’s main grouse with the play had been with the name of one of the characters, Harry.

Because the name was deemed to carry certain political connotations, the play was ascertained to have crossed certain limits of political sensitivity.

Eva explained that the assistant director of NUS Centre for the Arts (CFA) initially told them that the play was approved, except that the names ought to be changed because it was too obvious.

“As the play went on to the higher levels, they got back to us… they told us it might be ‘politically sensitive’,” she explained.

Laremy, an English Literature honours student from Kent Ridge Hall, said about his play, “It’s about a family travelling in a car, dysfunctional as they be, and they knock down an animal. Suddenly, a wildlife officer/crocodile hunter appears and tells them that they’ve killed the last political animal.”

In response to his opinion on the censorship, Laremy merely shrugged and exclaimed, “I’m an artist. I have no political agenda. I just want to write and I write what I see.”

Musaddaq, one of the producers from King Edward VII Hall, told us, “When I got the message from Danielle that it got cut, I went, ‘What! What is going on?’ And this was after the priest scene got cut too.”

The priest scene was a modification to another play, The Night Before, changing a priest to an advice hotline. They were asked to change it out of religious sensitivities.

“The Last Political Animal” was replaced by “I Fake It In Bed”, which also garnered a good response from the crowd.
Photo Credits: EH Eusoffworks

Incredible Chemistry

All four of the producers were extremely confident of The Last Political Animal and what it could have been. Laremy’s scripts were among the few that kept the producers excited and motivated through out.

Passionately, Chethan defended the play. “The play is very short, but every single bit had a lot of detail. On the surface it seems like such a short simple play, but there’s so much meaning in it.”

Danielle, a producer from Kent Ridge Hall, who was directing The Last Political Animal until the censorship issues cropped up, said that the actors cast in the roles had incredibly chemistry together.

“When we actually did the rehearsals, [the actors] really worked well together. Every time we rehearsed, there were new ideas coming out. It was really sad that everything got taken out in the end,” Danielle remarked.

The Consolation Is Coolness

Despite the disappointment, there was a small consolation: Laremy noted that people were more inclined to find out what his play was about.

“Now people who normally do not want to even watch a play are interested in reading my script,” said Laremy.

Danielle added, “It definitely ups the coolness factor.”

Dramafest is a collaborative event jointly organised by Eusoff Hall (EH), King Edward VII Hall (KE7) and Kent Ridge Hall (KRH). It features six short plays and is usually held after Semester Two’s mid-term break. This year, it was titled “Six: Confessions”, following last year’s title, “Six: Colours”. Although it was a free event, it had an M18 rating.

BN’s Loss Not a Surprise

Ho Yi Jian | rockjianrock@gmail.com
The Ridge News
A NUSSU Publication

March 16, 2008

Story Highlight:
1. Malaysia’s one-party system was born out of colonial legacy
2. Opposition and ruling party not a simple two-party system. Myriad forms of oppositionism converge.
3. The opposition alliance need to be registered, otherwise a threat to the two-party system.

Malaysia’s ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN)’s worst electoral performance this March was a shock to many, but to a professor from University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), it is not even a surprise.

Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, founding director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies at UKM, gave a talk on Mar. 14 at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) on “The Positive Future Of The Opposition in Malaysia: A Post-Analysis Of The 2008 Election”.

Ms. Yeo Lay Hwee, senior research fellow at SIIA, introduces Prof. Shamsul to the audience.
Photo credit: Ho Yi Jian

Examining the results from a historical perspective, he argued that Malaysia’s one-party system is an artifact of colonial legacy. The Communities Liaisons Committee (CLC), established in 1949, approached the leaders of the various ethnic groups to form political parties and a alliance of such multi-racial parties.

“These groups were not parties in the political sense,” He said. “They were closer to NGOs. MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) was basically a lottery and funeral society. UMNO was actually a combination of 32 different associations, and some were actually kuda kepang associations and sports associations.”

The committee’s objective was to socialise Malaysians into conditions of peaceful negotiations rather than to fight it out in the streets. However, since the committee only supported the alliance, minor parties had to make do by themselves without cooperation.

He mentioned that Penang once tried to secede from Malaysia to drive home the point. Combining the CLC suppression of non-ideological parties and the reality of modern electoral politics, the one-party system in Malaysia was born.

He also claimed that the results did not shock him; he had written two articles to the News Straits Times warning the ruling coalition that they had to cautious of the tactics used by the opposition and that the historical reasons for BN’s majority status did not apply as much as before.

The political landscape of the electoral districts was composed of three kinds of seats— the Malay-dominant seats, the Chinese-dominant seats, and the “mixed” seats where ethnic distribution was even. Now, the DAP (Democratic Action Party) caters towards the Chinese seats, PAS for the Malays and PKR for the mixed and Malay seats, according to him.

The Bersih rally, organised by opposition parties and NGOs, attracted an estimated 40,000 people on Nov 10.
Photo taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/19733259@N04/1944726669/in/pool-549864@N20

He also characterised the opposition as moving from “oppositionism” to “the opposition”. He warned that many authors write as though that the opposition in Malaysia was like those found in the two-party systems of other countries but instead a convergence of different oppositionisms. Oppositionism takes many forms; some in the form of NGOs because they can take up certain issues that the ruling coalition doesn’t, such as environmentalism.

He said Anwar Ibrahim had lead Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) and 30 to 40 other societies in a successful protest against the Societies Act, which will give a legal definition of friendly societies and political associations, severely curbing the freedom of association in Malaysia.

The same leaders who participated in that protest are the key leaders of the opposition today. “I still have the list of those people, and they’re in the opposition right now. The building of the opposition has begun since a long time ago.”

That also explains why Anwar is the de facto leader of the opposition alliance today. Not only is he charismatic, he also maintained ties with the NGOs despite joining UMNO and entering government service.

Another form of opposition which BN did not account for comes from the Internet and the new media.

“This is a new community and a different form of oppositionism. It is independent and its members are not necessarily in Malaysia. In 2007, there were rallies and demonstrations every month from January to December, and they were all peaceful. Sometimes the police came, sometimes they did not. Just because of SMS and the Internet, overnight you have 40,000 people on the streets, marching to the Yang Di-Pertua Agong’s palace.”

He recalled personal experience as he once received a SMS which calls for attending a gathering at a national mosque to appeal to a Sultan after Friday prayers.

On the BN, he remarked that their alliance must have kept alive so far solely through goodwill and elite political arrangements.

UMNO on the other hand, are possibly less concerned about the grassroots. He cited the existence of Mubarak, a group of former member of parliaments, which he estimates the number to be several thousands. He said these are the elite, business-owning Malays which UMNO has to cater to.

He recommended the current opposition alliance to register themselves as a political party so that a two-party system can finally appear in Malaysia. Then, it will be possible for the opposition to form the government, otherwise the opposition alliance will begin to fracture.

“They have to get registered. Otherwise, each political party will be bringing their own referees and goalposts, and start shifting them around. They have to learn to organize themselves or they will break up and it will be a threat to a two-party system in Malaysia.”