What's wrong with our censors? National Geographic's May issue was a special on China: Inside the Dragon. The whole issue was devoted to this Asian superpower, with many interesting articles and pictures (for which the magazine is famous for). For sure there's no sex but our censors at the Home Ministry seem to have other ideas. The famous "guidelines" of course.
This May issue was held back until late in June and the photo above tells you why. A seemingly innocent picture of a young boy getting back on his bicycle after a summer day's swim (P122), without putting back his pants, apparently seemed offensive to the censors. So out comes the black marker pen. How many man hours have been wasted censoring this image? This is not the first time (tribal people living deep in the forests are also a favourite for censorship), nor will it be the last.
rkcpwfawNostradamus Quatrains on Malaysie
ReplyDeleteIn the year of the great games started by the greeks
Hosted by the nation of heavenly emperors of times before
In a land called Malaysie
Great turbulence and strife engulf
A land where a Genghis Khan’s Descendant was shred to bits
Blown by the winds to the heavenly clouds
Where the accused are finally crowned
Amid great trepidation and acrimony
Then arose among men of honor
A man of the faith of Mohammedans
Kings and Rulers let him reign
And a new nation was born
Great leaders bring forth divination and revelations
A land of many tribes divided was thus united
The color of men was blurred and lost
By great competition to give their best
Herein lies the destiny of men
Who showed the meaning of democracy and humanity
Religions and languages flourishes as times before
A land as peaceful as Shangri La
Malaysie, a stopping point of travelers must see
Back to the days of great Sultans and Rajas
Nations and men afar come to seek their wealth
Knowledge, trade and life flourishes as before
From: Patek1472.wordpress.com
How is that offensive? How is naked or half-naked tribal people in the jungle offensive in anyway? If they have a problem with looking at other people's body, clearly they have problem with their perception of their own body.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, Malaysian censoring guidelines are too strict. We already have a good classification system for film and movie. If people chose to watch a 18SX film and get offended, then they shouldn't be watching it at all. Currently, even intimate kissing is censored sometimes. Does that make sense?
Should Pakatan Rakyat become the government, and with Pas' strong presence, it will be worst. We might not have cinemas anymore, just like Kelantan.
ReplyDeleteDato Wong
ReplyDeleteOur censors living in the high rise building
What they know looking on the streets?
Dishing out their brands of pictures
We are the fools living in their cage
They have the brains
Highly educated and experience
Yet when confront with naked truth
They are the monkeys playing hide and seek
We can’t throw peanuts
They are highly intelligent beings
We can’t throw bananas
They will feel offended
What they throw at us
They say we have no say
Brewing guidelines as if we are children
Running wild in the rainy season
Ask them go to the jungle of Borneo
See what the aborigines wear
Will they put clothing on them?
These aborigines roaming free
Some naked with the wind
It insults one’s intelligence
We are suppose to compete with the world
The censorship board should comprise young and old
On many various fields of intellect
Let there be freedom else we are laughing stock
On the world stage
Nostradamus Quatrains on Malaysie
ReplyDeleteIn the year of the great games started by the greeks
Hosted by the nation of heavenly emperors of times before
In a land called Malaysie
Great turbulence and strife engulf
A land where a Genghis Khan’s Descendant was shred to bits
Blown by the winds to the heavenly clouds
Where the accused are finally crowned
Amid great trepidation and acrimony
Then arose among men of honor
A man of the faith of Mohammedans
Kings and Rulers let him reign
And a new nation was born
Great leaders bring forth divination and revelations
A land of many tribes divided was thus united
The color of men was blurred and lost
By great competition to give their best
Herein lies the destiny of men
Who showed the meaning of democracy and humanity
Religions and languages flourishes as times before
A land as peaceful as Shangri La
Malaysie, a stopping point of travelers must see
Back to the days of great Sultans and Rajas
Nations and men afar come to seek their wealth
Knowledge, trade and life flourishes as before
From: Patek1472.wordpress.com
Dato Wong,
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine it will be that much worse if PAS comes to power.That's why DAP is in a no win situation in my view.Just look at the sniping between the Penang and Kedah state governments'.
Just chance upon an article in the Star yesterday on a department that stores and preserves documents. Can't recall the name. If you see the photos, you will be wondering like me on the number of employee that it has. Huge numbers just to read newspaper, document it etc. So, same la with our censorship. Too many being employed so they can do this manual job. 1.2 million civil servants....
ReplyDeleteSatria Asia, you are very wrong. You see, the UMNO goons try to look ( I repeat, "look" ) more holy because they are afraid that PAS may claim that spot. So they try to behave in ways that may make them appear to be holy. The problem is UMNO. You should not pre-judge the PR before they even get to sit in the Federal position. So far the PR state governments have been a lot fairer than the ex-BN govt
ReplyDeleteAll the ministries are headed by UMNO goons, so please don't shift the blame to PAS. The UMNO minister in charge of the the censorship people should answer for this, not PAS.
ReplyDeleteAiya, these UMNO people are hypocrites lah. They pretend that it is taboo to see pictures of a little boy's kuku and or little girl's nennen. But then after work, the UMNO men head to the girly KTV lounges and smother themselves over the GROs, and like an octupus, will touch here touch there, harassing the GROs there. Even an MP was caught harassing a woman so openly, and consuming alcohol so openly, ha ha. I am not against their consuming alcohol or wanting to have fun, but please don't deny the rest of the population from having a proper book to read or a proper movie to watch. Besides, this is cyber-age, and you can see a lot more on the web. So why bother censoring all the printed stuff to deny the poorer , less literate Ah Beng and Ahmad the opportunity to get a little entertainment.
ReplyDeletesatria asia , u jes wanna have a grudge with pas. i dont see any point why u r roping pas in.and mention kelantan as a scape goat.as i say i dont see any point apart than u r a full blooded umno sicko........
ReplyDelete