Written by kaitor on 6:47 PM
I believe all of us had know that Faizal Tahir had been ban from performing. He has been banned by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) from appearing in entertainment programmes. Subsequently, 8TV announced that it would freeze royalties from his album sales and concerts. He was dropped from the Anugerah Juara Lagu. What do you think, should he get banned because of that small gimmick.
Here is one of the Malaysian comment… I like this comment.
COMMENT
by A. ASOHAN
Our moral guardians are so caught up in stamping out their take on immorality that they don’t spend enough time trying to root out the immorality that all right-thinking persons can agree to.
IF YOU’RE like me, the first thing you thought when you heard that some singer had done a striptease live on TV, was probably “What on earth was he thinking?”
A striptease on TV? Even the United States, which some people would have us believe is the epitome of loose morals, would not have tolerated such a “wardrobe malfunction.” Throw the book at the idiot!
And they did. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has banned the TV station, 8TV, from broadcasting live and delayed telecast concerts for three months effective Jan 15.
The rock star himself, 29-year-old Faizal Tahir, has been banned from participating in live or delayed concerts by other TV stations for three months.
8TV, which essentially discovered him a couple of years ago through its reality talent show One in a Million, has also committed him to community service for six months.
And if that's not all, the station has frozen all royalty accruing to him from album sales and concerts.
But slowly, the facts started coming in. At a live performance to celebrate 8TV's fourth anniversary on Jan 13, the Terengganu-born Faizal took off his shirt, singlet and belt to reveal an “S” logo painted on his chest.
This is hardly on the same scale as Janet Jackson's aforementioned “wardrobe malfunction” that led to her baring a nipple during her 2004 Superbowl performance with Justin Timberlake.
Faizal took off his top. He teased a bit. A rock star bared his torso during his performance. Is it just me, or does all that hullabaloo over a shirtless man seem to you a tad ... heavy-handed?
We've had a long history of such overreactions in the local entertainment scene. How many of us reacted with incredulity to see a minister gleefully chopping off the long locks of Search frontman Amy all those years ago? Or when the Information Ministry ruled against Malay songs interspersed with English lyrics, which would have seen P. Ramlee's classic Madu Tiga being taken off the air?
Our Entertainment Desk pointed out that those KRU guys got the best revenge against such overblown and outdated sentiment. Seven out of the 10 tracks on their 1992 hip-hop debut Canggih were banned by RTM (Radio Televisyen Malaysia) because they “abused” the Malay language by mixing Malay, English and street lingo. That album went platinum.
Sometimes, it appears as if there are two distinct and disparate worlds coexisting in Malaysian society.
There's the one that believes rape victims bring it on themselves for baring their hair or for just being female; that the only way to ensure a moral, compassionate society is through rigid control and unstinting intolerance; and whose inhabitants, apparently, have never watched an MTV video with bare, writhing bodies.
There's the other world, populated by people who generally shrug at these things and move on with life. With all the real issues facing us as a nation, the rising crime rate among them, why are we worrying about small things like a shirtless male singer?
It's not so much a case of double standards, although there is a bit of that too, but trying to impose standards that are at odds with what's going on out there in the real world.
The first group, the moral guardians, say that's the problem right there. If we start letting some things go, it's tacitly approving immoral behaviour that would ultimately lead to degeneration on a national scale.
I believe there are moral absolutes, such as murder and rape being wrong no matter what. In many areas though, morality is subjective and personal.
It seems to me that our guardians are so caught up in stamping out their take on immorality that they don't spend enough time trying to root out the immorality that all right-thinking persons can agree to.
The increasingly rigid and intolerant rules and regulations we've been implementing over the last couple of decades have done nothing to stem the tide either.
Perhaps we should stop focusing on grandiose schemes and the “big picture” of morality, and just get down to the nitty-gritty task of fighting real crime.
As for poor Faizal, who has apologised (and I believe he had nothing to apologise for), he has two songs in the running at the 22nd Anugerah Juara Lagu awards this weekend. He was also supposed to perform at the awards ceremony, but the authorities are wondering if they should allow him to do so.
Hey guys, don't get your knickers in a twist. Just let him sing-lah! Faizal to carry on singing
Source: thestar.com.my
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