'Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure' - Erica Abi Wright a.ka. Erykah Badu.
Badu’s concert, which was due to take place at the Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Feb 29 was abruptly called off after an English daily, The Star published a photo of the singer in body art where among others she had the word Allah in Arabic written across her chest.
As far as the Muslim clerics are concerned, that is absolute blasphemy by Badu and if they had their way, the punishment would have been nothing less than the singer’s head, knowing how fanatically paranoid some of these so-called religious entities are.
Perkasa, the Malay right wing organisation notorious for stirring racial disharmony among the rakyat demanded that the Home Ministry revoke The Star’s publishing permit for publishing the picture.
The group’s youth wing presented a memorandum to the ministry, demanding “the stiffest penalty” against the daily for allegedly insulting Islam.
While in George Town, Penang, an umbrella organisation of Islamic-based non-governmental organisations lodged a police report against The Star over the Badu photo.
As a result of the political pressure dumped on the MCA-owned The Star, the newspaper has suspended indefinitely the services of its two editors responsible for publishing the controversial picture of Badu in body art.
But as far as Badu is concerned, she had this to say to the conundrum facing her body art which led to her show in Malaysia being cancelled.
For one, Badu’s body art was inspired by the character called “The Painted Lady” from the 1973 movie “The Holy Mountain” by her favourite film maker Alejandro Jodorowsky.
“I think the reason he (the director) did this was to show that we are all one and there is only one God and one truth and one religion,” she said.
Words of wisdom from Badu. But does the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry as well as the Home Ministry care? No!
What troubled the Malaysian government so much that it refused to give the singer a second chance in entertaining her fans in Malaysia?
Badu victim of Malaysian politics
Was the body art THE reason responsible for Badu’s concert being annulled or is there a bigger agenda which the ‘machismo’ Barisan Nasional government is hoping to achieve through this unceremonious move?
Badu’s concert organiser Pineapple Concerts Sdn Bhd managing director Razman Razali in all fairness seems puzzled at the latest turn of events.
“The show was given full approval by Puspal in December last year. No issue was raised until The Star ran an article with an image not supplied by us,” he was quoted in The Star as saying.
(Puspal is the Foreign Artiste Performance and Film Screening Central Application Agency).
What should the people make of this? Had The Star not published that particular picture, the Badu concert would have taken place unblemished? Or for that matter why did Puspal give the approval in Dec 2011?
Was the decision to put the brakes on the concert politically motivated, knowing just how close the 13th general election is and how desperately desperate premier Najib Tun Razak’s government is in wanting to win the GE?
The juxtaposition between the Badu concert and the Malaysian sombre political scenario is obvious.
Failing to save face in the 2008 general election, the BN-led government has decided to apply the “goody two shoes” approach in trying to win the rakyat’s trust.
Winning the people’s faith in BN would include doing anything and everything that makes the BN appear ‘caring’ and ‘concerned’. Not wanting to upset its core supporters i.e. the Malay Muslims of this country, Najib’s administration concluded that aborting the Badu concert was “a step in the right direction” in garnering public support.
Unfortunately, this checkmate move was riddled with holes which have made the madcap of both BN and Umno, the latter country’s largest political party upholding Malay aspirations, glaring.
Truth manipulated
Information, Communications and Culture Minister, Rais Yatim, is steadfast on why Badu’s Feb 29 concert was banned. It had all to do with the respect accorded to religion, race and the socio-culture existing in Malaysia.
Is this the focal reason or has the truth been manipulated for the sake of some vested interests?
The Star on March 1 reported Rais as saying: “If the concert had gone ahead, according to the police, there would have been a possibility of it developing into a situation that may might led to social excitement. It could lead to quarrels due to the religious sensitivities, like what had happened in other places in the world.
“The strong grounds in terms of the integrity of the religion, race and the government itself had to be taken into consideration besides security factors,” he said.
Rais is adamant that Badu has insulted Islam and the Malaysian government is in no mood to forgive her and allow her a second chance.
But then this very government had no qualms according Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan with a ‘Datukship’ in conjunction with Malacca governor Mohd Khalil Yaakob’s 70th birthday back in Oct 2008.
Shah Rukh found himself in trouble with the Christian community in India when his character ‘Raj’ in the 1995 blockbuster film ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ insinuated to a girl that he (Raj) had urinated inside a church.
The truth is that upholding the sanctity of a religion requires sincerity and from the turn of events involving the different faiths of this country, the honesty remains questionable. And Badu perhaps became the victim of Malaysia’s Machiavellian politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment