Liberal, My @$$
J-on
|
Saturday, August 6, 2011
|
Share this post on Facebook
By CHESTER CHIN
In principle, the three controversial Ramadan advertisements which the television network 8TV ran should have worked.
They have the perfect recipe of a good public service advertisement; comic relief in the form of an Asian version of Ugly Betty, social responsibility manifested through light-hearted sketches and gentle reminders about respecting another’s culture conveyed by gorgeous pseudo famous television hosts. All seems well and perfect, charming even.
However in practice, there were nothing remotely good about those ads.
Instead of coming across as hilarious, the Chinese girl was painted as an obnoxious person who has no control over her own actions with street manners reminiscent of a hooker along Chow Kit road.
And as opposed to being light-hearted, the sketches were so one-sided that it borders on illogical. Regarding the television hosts, who the *bleep* do they think they are to come across so self-righteous?
Alas, what you have is an onscreen concoction so derogatory towards a particular race that it is slapped with the capital “R” for “Racist” label.
Both Muslims and non-Muslims alike were disgusted by the racially discriminative undertones of the series of ads. Not only did the advertisements portray “Chinese” as a certain way, some Muslim MPs have even stepped out and criticised them for suggesting Islam as an intolerant religion.
It is times like these that you feel thankful for the majority of rational and grounded Malaysians out there.
The point here is that the “public service” ads were so audacious that it triggered the outrage of the general Malaysian public across all divide. Well at least everyone except 8TV’s CEO Ahmad Izham Omar.
Known for his somewhat liberal mindset, Ahmad Izham took to the microblogging site Twitter to apologise before promptly ending the tweet with “We’re sorry for the misinterpretation”.
Here is where the line is crossed and "liberal" turns into pure egoistical arrogance. To rub salt to injury, 8TV then released a rather grudging and half-hearted apology after taking the ads off air.
In an intellectual bid as saving grace, the television network even quoted Austro-British philosopher, Karl Popper and released an apologetic statement that goes like this ““As the famous philosopher once said, It is impossible to speak in a way that you cannot be misunderstood' and this is the unfortunate situation that has resulted from the 8TV Ramadan PSA.”.
Well, not that the public is not practicing the spirit of forgive and forget. But the process could have been easier if the network own up to their mistake and not be such a b*tch about it. They should provide a genuine apology instead of shrugging it off as a “misinterpretation”.
At the end of the day, the powers-that-be at 8TV need to recognise the powerful influence that they wield as a mainstream broadcasting station. As a matter of fact, they should practice what they preached on the series of ads and "not get carried away".
While the ads may have been retracted, the trail of unrest it evoked still lingers. Let this be a lesson learnt for everyone out there. Racial sentiment is still a provocative issue in our multicultural society.
At this point, there is really no use in denunciating the network and pointing fingers. The damage has already been done.
This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of J-on as a publication. > Follow Chester Chin at www.twitter.com/chesterchin
This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of J-on as a publication. > Follow Chester Chin at www.twitter.com/chesterchin
