Banning them all

I Don’ t Want to Sleep Alone is a title of a Taiwanese movie made by a Malaysian director. One look at the poster (see here) and you would know this movie is not going to make it to our cinemas.

Sure enough, it won’t. This movie had been banned for portraying the country in a bad light. There are highlights of how we treat and abuse illegal workers, how our traders are conniving lots and of course, some shades of gay relationship.

AFP reports that among the eight reasons the censorship board listed for the ban were that the movie depicted Malaysians as cold-hearted in scenes showing locals beating up and deceiving foreign workers.

Apparently the movie has some explicit sexual scenes. The Taiwanese government has given the movie a ‘18 and Above’ certificate and has banned the offending poster.

This ban follows a recent trend by the government to tell us how to think.

Apa Khabar Orang Kampung (Village People Radio Show) is the second movie by director Amir Muhammad to be banned by the Malaysian government. This latest movie once again deals with communists, just as his first (The Last Communist).

The government wants to continue playing big brother in protecting what we should be watching, or reading for that matter as recently some 56 books were banned for being unsuitable for the local minds. Among those banned was a book on the March 8, 2001 racial incident in Kampung Medan.

And it’s not just movies or books. Even talk shows are being banned. Recently TV3's Sensasi was banned after a guest spoke some disparaging remark about Prophet Muhammad’s first wife. The guest, a drama actor, has also been banned by RTM.

No dissent allowed, no critical thinking allowed and now, more regularly, nothing negative as well.