Commentary Mustafa K. Anuar

THE Communications and Multimedia Ministry gave an assurance recently that it would not ban television dramas that depict Datuks as dishonourable people who indulge in extramarital affairs, bribery or have multiple wives.

To impose a ban on such televised aspects of social life would obviously mean downright censorship and a violation of media freedom in a democracy.

Minister Annuar Musa announced that the creative industry needs freedom to operate within the confines of the ministry’s guidelines and national values.

However, this is not enough of an incentive as creative people would still be subjected to certain rules that are restrictive to the creativity and imagination of writers and other such people.

To look at it from a different perspective, some people with honorifics would still have affairs or grease the hands of others in real life, irrespective of whether Annuar decides to ban or not to ban such features of social life on television.

Denying certain elements of social reality on television would not make the unpleasant truth go away. You only sweep them under the proverbial carpet, which can be deceiving.

If anything, television dramas particularly about such crimes as corruption and embezzlement would have the potential of helping to alert viewers of the gravity of the social ills that are deserving of our collective concern, condemnation and punishment.

To be sure, there are enough television materials out there to enthral viewers for a long time. Take, for example, the shenanigans of certain high-profile politicians who exploit race and religion merely to serve their vested interests.

The intricate strategies employed to achieve their dark objectives can be as instructive as it is entertaining to viewers.  

Certain MPs’ flamboyant lifestyle, which is not reflective of their official incomes, would also make good television materials.

Indeed, many works of fiction are based on real life or some elements of it, which can function as an instrument of social criticism. Apart from television dramas, they may also take the form of novels and short stories.

It is when the fiction comes too close to the truth in social life or expresses an “unauthorised” version of truth, that it generally gets slammed with government censorship.

Or the fiction gets banned if it strives to challenge the conventional or the status quo. This is because a creative work demands thinking out of the box, whereas censorship would only blunt the creative edge.

Award-winning creative works tend to push the envelope, at times at the risk of incurring the wrath of an insecure regime. This is reflective of certain works of our creative people who have won awards in foreign competitions – without being subjected to our censors’ snip.

Depicting people with honorifics on TV as dishonest VIPs shouldn’t even be seen as a task that requires pushing the envelope.

This is because, as intimated above, there are so-called honourable people who are indeed deceitful in real life like anybody else, especially if they commit serious offences such as financial mismanagement and corruption.

There should not even be a need to obtain a ministerial nod before a work of fiction can depict dishonest VIPs as such. – October 13, 2021.