'Tanda Putera' film about deadly 1969 riots points finger at Chinese
Movie on deadly 1969 riots portrays the Chinese mainly as shadowy figures who bring mayhem, while Malays show restraint
At a crucial point in the film , ethnic Chinese youths urinate on a pole flying the flag of a Malaysian state, setting off events that push the country into a deadly race riot that still haunts the national consciousness four decades later.
The publicly funded movie, which opened recently in Malaysia after a long delay, is stirring up racial sentiment at a sensitive time over its depiction of the ethnic Chinese minority as the aggressors in the violent events of May 13, 1969.
The system of preferential treatment for ethnic Malays, who make up two-thirds of the population, was born out of the riots and continues to be the number one complaint among the country's ethnic Chinese.
The film - released as Malaysia marked its 56th year of independence and as Prime Minister Najib Razak prepares for a possible leadership battle within his party in October - plays on deep-seated fears at a time when Chinese disloyalty has been blamed for the government's depleted majority in May's election.
The mostly ethnic Chinese state of Penang has advised cinemas not to screen on the grounds that it crosses a line by using public funds to promote hate.
"Because the film is sponsored by the government, the film is effectively the official version of the riots," said Penang's ethnic Chinese chief minister, Lim Guan Eng.
Creative licence should not be used to spread lies that may cause racial disharmony, he added.
That is a charge Shuhaimi Baba, the film's director, denies.
"Historical facts carry many back stories written by different sources on the same subjects," she said. "Filmmakers use creative licence to put them together in a story or else they become documentaries."
The release of the movie - whose Malay title means "Mark of a Prince" - was delayed ahead of the election in May for fear of alienating ethnic Chinese. Their votes went to the opposition anyway, sharply cutting the government's winning margin.
Hardliners in Najib's United Malay National Organisation party equated the disaffection of ethnic Chinese with betrayal and the intemperate mood has simmered. Najib's cabinet has only two ethnic Chinese ministers, both in minor posts.
Official versions of the 1969 riots are scant on detail.
About 200 people are said to have been killed in the clashes in and around the capital, Kuala Lumpur, after opposition parties supported by the ethnic Chinese community made inroads in a general election three days earlier. Shuhaimi's film builds the picture of the looming disaster in a series of heavy-handed scenes, portraying the Chinese mainly as shadowy figures who bring mayhem. In contrast, the Malays show restraint and dignity even as events spin out of control.
makes much of the role of Abdul Razak Hussein, the deputy prime minister at the time and the father of the current prime minister, in securing peace in the face of personal tragedy.
Shown as strong, self-effacing and principled, Razak has no discernible fault in the film. He hides his terminal leukaemia, finally succumbing to it in scenes at a London clinic.
The film flays foreign correspondents for biased reporting on the riots and gives a nod to the theory that mainly ethnic Chinese communist elements had a hand in the trouble.
Better known for horror movies, Shuhaimi said the question of too much or too little creative licence did not apply in a film like . She said she was "now in the midst of getting the film back on screen in Penang".
