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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Ramli Ibrahim, an Islamic center at a prestigious Malaysian university, was both shocked and outraged by how his online lecture on how multicultural performing arts should pass the race in early June.
An official statement from University of Technology Malaysia (UTM), one of the country’s most esteemed public universities, said that “the organizers have ordered the university’s Islamic centers for reasons that are not revealed to cancel the program”.
Ramli, a renowned artistic director of the Kuala Lumpur-based Sutra Dance Theater, is a Malay Muslim and world-renowned for his choreography of Indian classical dance, especially Odissi style, who came online to call the UTM Islamic Center a “close mind” and “Pride”. The center did not respond to questions about Al Jazeera’s cancellation.
“We have punished extreme religious indoctrination for entering our education system,” Ramli told Al Jazeera in an interview. “The latter is the focal world for working with the kind of citizens we will eventually create.”
Ramli’s case is the final part of a lengthy national debate on the state of Malaysian art and underscores the role that Islamic conservatism continues to control and shape the nation’s cultural identity and practices. Most of Malaysia’s population is of Muslim Muslim ethnicity, but there are large Chinese and Indian ethnic communities, as well as indigenous ones, especially in the states of Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo.
“We’ve produced a generation that has a pretty crooked and narrow view of the world. Unfortunately, they are the same people who run the country, ”Ramli said.
Going against the grain
Ramli’s experience reminds us that in Malaysia we don’t mean budaya kuning (“yellow culture,” Western culture) banned by political artists like Fahmi Reza and Zunar or banned by foreign films and censored by international pop and rock actors. ‘radar. Traditional, but not Islamic, art forms like Ramli’s Odissi dance in India are at risk of being punished by conservatives.
The current situation spans several decades.
In 1970, the government introduced the previous National Culture Policy after the violent and racialized political crisis of the previous year, which aimed to establish a new basis for a “national unity” of multi-religious and multi-religious nations.
The result was mostly a national culture based on the traditions of most Malaysians, with Islam as an important component.
In the 1990s, the NCP’s vision of identity began to weaken as the country faced new and more pressing challenges to sustain globalization. But as Ramli’s recent case shows, the core of politics continues to inform major cultural decisions.
“Cultural elements of Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Westerners and others that are considered appropriate and acceptable are included in the national culture,” the 2019 document read on the Prime Minister’s website explaining the National Culture Policy.
He noted that “acceptance” was not only subject to the provisions of the Constitution, but also to issues such as “national interest, moral value, and Islam’s position as the country’s official religion.”
Experts say the approach stifles Malaysian cultural traditions.
“Attempts to control and manipulate the arts will not only drown out the creativity of all art practitioners, but will lead to the disappearance of our local traditions,” said ethnomusicology professor Tan Sooi Beng at the Universiti Sains Malaysian School of Art in Peniti. and an advocate for the sustainability of local traditions through community research.
Tan cites laws such as the Printing and Publishing Act, which allows the government to ban cassettes, videos, and books that are not approved by official censors; and the Police Act, which requires applications for police permits to hold public gatherings, including theater, music and dance performances.
Ramli, who founded the Sutra dance company in 1983 after returning from Australia, has seen Islamism as more conservative in Malaysia in the years since he returned home.
Although his company’s productions have been well-known among local and international audiences and have garnered critical acclaim, his artistic arts, using a rich tapestry of cultural elements, have had a constant struggle with religious censors.
“There was initial official opposition to my performances until the mid-1990s, even before the creation of the Malaysian Department of Islamic Development (Jakim). And it was not understood among the organizers that my performances would be considered“ controversial ”because of the reference to a Hindu Muslim“ temple dance ”. “he said. Jakim is part of the prime minister’s office and is in charge of Islamic affairs.
Concerns seem to have settled over the last decade when Ramli began to receive a lot of support from India and in his words was seen as an “aberration” among Malaysian cultural gatekeepers. But he also warned that it is difficult to get the government’s strong support for taking his dynamic and innovative Indian company of classical dance abroad.
Cultural desertification
The cultural traditions of the Malaysian majority in Malaysia have also come under pressure from government regulations.
Ancient dance-drama performances, such as mak yong, main puteri and kuda kepang, and shadow puppet theater, wayang kulit – the most important examples of traditional Malay culture – were banned in 1998 for being “non-Islamic” in entertainment. The law, approved in the northeastern state of Kelantan, has been controlled by the Islamic Party of Malaysia for 30 years. Kuda kepang, with its elements of trance and mysticism, has also been the subject of a religious decree in the southern state of Johor since 2009.
The scene of the South Island story, where the Chinese protagonist plays the traditional Kedah Malay Wayang Kulit Ged. The award-winning film was censored by the censorship committee, mostly about pre-Islam scenes. [Courtesy of Chong Keat Aun]
Malaysian traditional art spans more than a millennium, from pre-Islamic times to the Srivijaya Empire of the regions. And as with similar traditions in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, or the Indonesian island of Java, Malaysian versions are local adaptations of Hindu epics and characters from the Ramayana epic.
Mak yong – played in Kelantan for centuries – has been particularly directed by Islamic conservatives for being female performers who play male roles. According to interpretations of Islam, women and especially disguise are excluded.
“Rituals, women’s clothing, content and stories that are key to understanding women’s energy in women’s healing habits have long influenced the power of art. Among men,” said Malaysian choreographer and performer Aida Redza, who praised original and modern productions abroad. who makes an effort to find spaces in the home.
Named a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible World Heritage by UNESCO in 2005, the ban y yong was finally lifted in late 2019 under pressure from UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights Karima Bennoune to counter the campaign’s stifling desire. tradition. However, mak yong performances experts say only meet the requirements of Islamic laws that fundamentally change the original style and symbolic meaning.
“The ban on mak yonga was cosmetically removed, but it cannot be recognized in its original form – only men are allowed to perform roles that are ritually and traditionally performed by women. You cannot go further than the roots of mak yonga,” said writer Eddin Khoo and PUSAKA, a Kuala Lumpur-based cultural organization. Founder involved in Malaysian ritual arts.
Khoo points out that, regardless of the bans, mak yong has survived among traditional village communities as a resistance to “cultural cleansing”.
“Mak yong yes “This process is part of the evolution of the Islamic faith itself in much of Malaysia and Southeast Asia. This struggle is not about art or culture or religion.” it is a power struggle: who has the power to condition the minds, attitudes, and behaviors of a particular community. “
Navigation restrictions
Prohibitions and restrictions become a network system, as government-run art agencies also act as filters and censors to give artists permission to perform what they allow and what not to remember.
“There is a subtext of strict religious values in the purchase of permits that are more conducive to strict Sunni Islam,” Ramli told Al Jazeera. “The ‘You Don’t Have’ command censors and binds most organizations, not only in education, but also in literature, film, music, food and beverages, clothing, and so on.”
One recent example is Chong Keat Aun’s film The Story of Southern Islet, which was nominated for four awards at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei last November and won Best New Director Award. Located in the state of Kedah near the Thai border and based on the filmmaker’s childhood memories, the woman recounts a dream-like spiritual journey to heal her husband, who she believes is ill because of a supernatural curse.
Despite its international fame, the film was cut by a dozen censorship committees in Malaysia, all linked to elements of pre-Islamic rituals, including wayang kulit gedet – a form of shadow play that was very popular in the northern state. 1980s. Today, only two wayang kulit convoys remain.
Wayang kulit – perhaps the most popular form of traditional entertainment in some parts of Malaysia and Indonesia and once used as a way to share news and gossip among locals – was banned in 1998 because its origins go back to pre-Islamic traditions. Before COVID-19’s performances came to a complete halt, the wayang kulit had already become the original shell of its own, organized only at selected locations and at weddings and opening ceremonies.
Ramli Ibrahim in Isha Ashram of Coimbatore (India) [Courtesy of Sutra Foundation. Photo by Iqbal Singh Saggu]
“It makes a lot of sense to cancel a top artist like Ramli Ibrahim: if the organizers think it would be inappropriate, don’t invite them in first,” said Tintoy Chuo Fusion founder and main concept creator Wayang Kulit, a Kuala Lumpur-based group, Kelantan’s wayang kulit which has helped to revive it by combining it with modern elements.
Theirs Star Wars Wayang Kulit renewed the tradition by using characters from the Star Wars saga and superheroes like Batman and Wonder Woman in DC Comics. This made art even more appealing to today’s multiethnic public city – some of which would never have bothered with a traditional performance – while ignoring thematic restrictions.
“What happened to this land before Islam is history, and everything must be accepted as a historical precedent for what we cannot change,” Chuo said. “Look at the countries around us and ask how the arts are doing so well? Because they understand and respect the distinction between religion and art. “
The challenge for Ramli is to make Malaysia’s majority cultural identity – in Malay Muslim or Melayu Malay – a new and newer worldview.
“I wouldn’t dare define what‘ permanent Melayu ’should be, but suffice it to say that I prefer my Melayu not to wear his religion an albatross around his neck,” he said.
Ramli was studying classical Indian Bharatanatyam while studying in Melbourne in the 1970s.
He joined the newly formed Sydney Dance Company in 1977 and then joined the Odissi style, which he perfected under the guidance of Odisha’s Gap Debaprasad Das, continuing to visit the former master until his death in 1986.
“He doesn’t have to justify himself all his life that he’s a Melayu … my Melayu doesn’t have to be so ‘pure’ in his genealogy and he’s sure that regardless of what Melayu does and most importantly, he’s proud to be Malaysian first.”
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