The late Yasmin Ahmad produced this short clip in celebration of multi-racial diversity. While it was commissioned for Malaysia’s 50th Hari Merdeka, the message is one that transcends boundaries.
Alfian Sa’at also references this video in his article.
So cute.. but the ending message is just as apt for Malaysia just as it is for Singapore: “Our children is colour blind. Shouldn’t we keep them that way?”
This is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.
There! I told you guys the Malaysians are way ahead of us in terms of public discourses on racial relations!
The academic Farish Noor is embarking on a project where he intends to collect wedding photographs of mixed-race couples–taken around 1969, the year when Malaysia’s worst racial riots occurred.
The point being to prove that ordinary people were still crossing supposed racial firewalls during what was supposed to be a twillight of racial polarisation and discord.
True.. rather than sticking our heads into the sand and simply regurgitate PAP slogans. We would be better off with honest introspection and dialogue.
Malaysia ads are much better. They have a local content requirement and that has resulted in vibrant and talented local media houses. There’s no such requirement here and almost all the agencies are staffed at the top by angmohs, ads have angmohs in them, with Asians usually portrayed subserviant roles (waiter, salespeople, etc).
yasmin ahmad kicks butt! I have been youtubing her ads and i have never seen anything like them in sg. Its almost embaressing how backward we are in the area of discussing racial relations in the open. she also deals with ageism and family ties so well.
The mos endearing thing about Yasmin Ahmad is that her videos never cross the “highfalutin” ideals that we sometimes see in our local adverts. She speaks through the representation of the lowest strata of society, where most of us don’t really take a second look upon, and speaks her message through subtle, yet profound visual cues and voice-overs.
I have nothing to say about Singaporean national adverts, only that I can’t seem to relate myself with them. Talk about the vacuum of the Singaporean “soul.”
nice video… if the girl is a Muslim, then the boy, at a later stage, would be required by the girl’s religion to convert to become a Muslim and be circumcised… after they overcome the racial barrier, there is potentially a religious barrier to overcum, unless people can get married without the spouse’s religion requiring the religious conversion.
Petronas is noted for its beautiful ads..
i wonder why we don’t have such ads here, since we always like say ‘Malaysia this , Malaysia that…
Aren’t they doing better than us.?
Seems like it….
Beautiful …….. i really love it .
that was sweet. i noticed that our youths, those in secondary and tertiary are more open in racial relations and it is good to see.
yet whenever i’m out on a date with a chinese girl, i get uncomfortable stares from from certain group of chinese guys (yes i said certain, that means not all).
and some of them even hurl nasty remarks. i dont mind them insulting me.(they didnt know i understand mandarin) but it is disheartening when the insult in hurled at the girl.
well, at least there’s hope in our future genaration.
11) niagara on September 10th, 2009 2.02 am
yet whenever i’m out on a date with a chinese girl, i get uncomfortable stares from from certain group of chinese guys (yes i said certain, that means not all).
They are just envious boys yearning for a girlfriend.
Take a look at the THIRD paragraph of this article in TODAY (Sept 4):
Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) — Of four races and a funeral
The url for the story:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC090904-0000089/Of-four-races-and-a-funeral
(Extract)
Of four races and a funeral
by Alicia Wong
05:55 AM Sep 04, 2009
HIS FIRST thought, when he found out that the leading lady for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports’ Funeral commercial was Indian: “Alamak, my Minister is Indian.”
His next thought, after he found out the lady’s husband would be Chinese: “Alamak, my Minister’s wife is Chinese.”
Another worry: Promoting inter-racial marriages in Singapore may not be “politically-right” in Singapore yet, noted MCYS’ director for communications and international relations division Richard Tan. (end of extract)
My question to MCYS comms head Richard Tan’s view: Is this official policy?
What then of Singapore’s multi-racial policy?
The irony of this whole saga is the fact that MCYS of our racially sensitive government hires the same Yasmin Ahmad of Malaysia to produce an ad emphasizing love for family depicting racially mixed family. The question which bags the answer is that why four decades of meritocracy in government policies in Singapore failed to produce a ad as inspirational as this one and why a government agency had no choice but to hire someone who worked and lived in Malaysia where she was “preferred because of her race”. Does that mean that after all these years Malaysia has been able to produce better content and talent while Singapore had to import “bumiputra” talent from Malaysia?
Here is the link to the video on youtube of the ad directed and written by Yasmin Ahmad for MCYS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM
If Hong Ming wants to marry his girlfriend, he will have to change his name to perhaps Mohammed Tan bin Abdullah (whether he likes it or not not). Then he will have to tell his mother that she is not allowed to cook or serve pork (his wife says so cos of tainted utensils etc) ie. if she wants him home for dinner. Then he will be told that he is not allowed to partake in his family ancestral worship or funeral etc etc…….and the list go on and on. Over time, the result…….a mother has lost a son. So stop kidding…. unless people can show some respect and stop imposing on others!!!!
8) religious barrier and 14) jac
Sorry to ask this, but why are we discussing about marriage at this point? How old are these kids?
Anyway, a response to 8)–circumcision is not a prerequisite to conversion into Islam. Muslim scholars consider this sunnah–preferable if done, but not mandatory (wajib).
To 14)–Shouldn’t this be something that the boy will have to decide for himself? Whether or not he wishes to convert into Islam to marry the woman he loves? I think it’s a bit far-fetched to think that blood ties can be severed just because a child chooses to be of a religion different from his mother. I believe that we’re much more flexible and creative than that.
The mother might know not to serve pork the couple without even the son telling her, and the son might turn up for his mother’s funeral and perform all the rites without seeing this as conflicting with his Islamic beliefs. Who are we to pre-judge for them eh?
Rightfully said Alfian. ….if only adults can have half the innocence of children. When you said ` I believe that we are much more flexible and creative than that’ , are you refering to yourself or ???????? I am talking from experience as my sister is a convert (if only my brother-in-law is Alfian Saat! hehehe) and I also have a Chinese friend who is married to a Muslim gal. We can argue until the cows come home but in my view, this divide is more of a religious nature than racial and it is confine to a small segment of society. Question is how do we as Singaporean and as fellow human beings overcome this?
Love — and tolerance — conquers all, I hope. A man will do everything to make the woman of his dreams happy, irrespective of her race or religion. And she would do likewise, I am sure.
The young accept friends of all creed and colour.Some grow up, with these values of tolerance and acceptance reinforced. Theirs is the happiness of the brotherhood of man.
Some others, unfortunately, grow up amidst prejudice and intolerance.
They learn to fear others not of their race, religion and culture.
Really, it is a matter of choice, our choice — the kind of society we want our children to grow up in.
Try this today — smile and say hello to your neighbour in the lift. You will see that he or she will smile in return. The smile says it all.
All people around the world know the meaning of a smile.
Yea, it’s probably a tad too early to mention marriage but then again, isn’t that the stages of relationships which people pay more attention to?
Conversion will undoubted bring about much more change beyond the religious aspect. The ripple effect will reach into the cultural, social and possible familial arena. We have to admit that it is inevitable.
Whether who converts or both don’t is a choice we leave up to the couple. After all, who are we to dictate that a man, out of love, should convert in favour of his wife when the same can be said of the woman. She, out of love, can also live in peaceful co-existence with her husband’s beliefs or convert albeit facing the threat of excommunication.
As far as my knowledge permits, it is virtually impossible for one to partake in all the traditional rites of a Chinese funeral without conflicting with the beliefs of the Abrahamic faiths.
If only we would have been as innocent and daring as these kids and those who took the plunge! I was simply moved by the innocence of these kids and the strength of this message.
With regards to conversion and believes. I believe it is foolhardy and self delusive if someone converts just because someone he/she loves profess a certain religion or ideology. After a while that act will start eating him/her from inside and the apparent contradictions will spillover into their relationship. If the couple is having healthy relationship they will live with their differences and similarities. It might be that the person converting is really convinced of what he/she is going to convert to.
Isn’t it that so many wars in this world were fought because warring sides could not bear the thought they can live in harmony and peace with each others religions. Religion should bring compassion and moderation in ones life. Humans are better off without it if religion brings in hatred, dogma and witch hunt. Well isn’t it that race, nationalism and religious intolerance brought about mass murder on industrial scale during last century with no parallels in history despite the fact that so called enlightenment as well as rationalism were the corner stones of western liberal civilization.
Tolerance and compassionate understanding among different communities can solve so many problems of today’s world and I believe that tolerance and understanding was more prevalent during yesteryear Singapore than today’s affluent society.
i think we got to realise that the reason why a non muslim has to convert to islam is because that is the religious law. simple as that. is it fair? maybe not. but who can change a religious law. the govt? maybe? i don’t know.
yeah i too personally think, that in today’s context that it shouldn’t be that way, that one should not convert unwillingly for “love”. but at the end of the day, if you cant commit to that, then you shouldnt be going into the marriage. move on.
i’m aware it’s handled differently in various nations but if you think about it, you cant tell a buddhist to eat beef because it gives your body protein, well you get my drift.
but at the end of the day, it is up to the individual. if you dont want to convert, then dont. yeah it is sad in the name of love. but seriously move on.
and also, laws are just there as a guideline, be it religous or not. one can convert and not practice the religion in the end, we all know it is wrong to do this or that but we sometimes do it anyway. at the end of the day you are answerable only to yourself.
anyway back to the topic, i think 17) gabriel is spot on. somehow, partly due to the fact we do not live like the way the previous generation did, extended family. nowadays we only care for ourselves.
and in that process, perhaps some of us subconsciously think that maybe the other person have something against me, and when both parties think that way, there wont be any smiles or interaction. but once the other smiles, all guards got dropped.
i personally hope that hatred among various races is a tad over-rated. well at least in singapore, i cant say much about other countries. i mean, think about it. we used to be able to get along so well even after the racial riots. but what changed? perhaps.. elitism?
#20
>>and also, laws are just there as a guideline, be it religous or not. one can convert and not practice the religion in the end, we all know it is wrong to do this or that but we sometimes do it anyway. at the end of the day you are answerable only to yourself.>>
My sister married a Muslim and converted. At home, she observes all the Malay custom. When she’s back with us, she eats like a Chinese . When our family eats with my brother-in-law, we respect his religious practice. By the way, I’m vegetarian and the only vegetarian in my family.
Yes, we all make a little adjustment here and there. But It’s not a problem to my sister. It’s also not a problem to my brother-in-law. It is certainly not a problem to our family too. When nobody sees it a problem, there is nothing wrong.
Point to note, Niagara.
Not all Buddhists don’t eat beef.
And what about the example? Sounds a little non-sequitor to me.
I am confused here. My discussion with Alfian over an article of his http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/09/why-the-need-to-be-proud-of-being-a-malay-singaporean/comment-page-4/#comment-104276 showed that there is no apostasy law in Singapore and no conversion into Islam is required for one to marry a Muslim. The impression that I got from here seem not. Alfian, can explain?
It seems to me that ‘religion’ is the main culprit, not ‘race’ that divide us all, human of different colours. I have discussion at length with Alfian over his article as mentioned, and I put to him the correlation of Malay-Muslim or Malay/Muslim that “bogged down the progress of the Malay race, politically as well as integration with other ethnics of the world both in Malaysia and Singapore.” You can read all over again there.
Nevertheless, I admire Yasmin Ahmad’s products a lot, and it is very unfortunate for us to lose such an individual that is so open minded and promote ‘color blind’ that divides our people so much.
You see, Yasmin Ahmad was a product of Malaysian education way before switching of English to Malay language as the main language medium in national schools. The school environment then was “color blind” as shown in her products like what we see in Tan Hong Meng here. No doubt such things still happen in Malaysian schools, but as and when we grows up, we are exposing to more and more differences among ourselves due to NEP, unfairness in policy and practically, no meritocracy. As we grow up, the close relationship earlier between friends of different colours become one of suspicious.
I say this from my own experience where I got a close Malay friend before. You see, passing of Malay language is a must in order to get a full cert. Being an Chinese educated in primary school years, my Bahasa Malaysia was so “koyak”, and it was my this Malay friend that helped me to master the Malay language. In return, I helped him to master his mathematics. We became close friends until we reached higher form, where he got all the 1st class opportunity to go overseas for tertiary education (all arranged by the government), while I was left behind in Malaysia. Since then, we have lost contact with each other.
For those want to catch up with Yasmin Ahmad, you may continue visiting her blog.
http://yasminthestoryteller.blogspot.com/ , for a Malaysian, I lost a true Malaysian in her, for Singapore, maybe a true friend that remind us to co-exist peacefully and value the diversity that many parts of the world envy.