The Sure Things in Life


There are 3 sure things in life: Death, Taxes and Government Stupidity. This is reinforced everyday by our benevolent Ministers in government, who rise to prove each day that they are dafter then donkey’s dung.

This morning I saw this:


(Click on image to read article, opens new window)

Can anybody believe the stupidity of it all? First they screw up the national car policy, now they want to screw up the national film policy the same way.

While it is indeed noble that they want to help the local film industry, they are naive if they think levying a tax on foreign films is going solve anything, Not only is the tax NOT going to help the situation, it will make it worse by driving up the cost of cinema tickets, contributing to inflation and making foreign films more glamorous by the logic that Expensive = Better. I dare say the ONLY person who is going to benefit is your neighborhood VCD peddler.

The reason why Malaysian films fail is because of censorship. If the government is honestly sincere in its efforts to help develop the local film industry, all they need to do is abolish censorship and allow our film writers’ creativity to shine unhindered. Otherwise they should just give up, because nobody is going to subject himself to a poorly made, heavily censored, boring film - made in Malaysia or otherwise - no matter how cheap it is.

Also, the bit about protecting our industry from our neighbors is pure unadulterated bollocks. Lets us not forget who helped promote Sepet, one of the more successful films made in Malaysia these many years. Singapore. Yes, it was Singapore who was first to be so impressed with the film that it entered the film for a film festival, while all our government was interested in was censoring it and branding it un-Malaysian.

So, will somebody please hit the esteemed Dr Rais Yatim over the head with a clue by four?