KUALA LUMPUR Dec 23 (Utusan) — The Malaysian Youth Council (MYC) raised concerns today that the move by the government to allow movie producers to censor their own work starting next year, instead of the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia, would be detrimental to the country”s youth.
MYC president Mohamed Maliki Mohamed Rapiee said this was due to the tendency of producers to entice movie goers with negative elements and it was questionable if their self-censorship could ensure youth are not influenced by these elements.
“Nowadays youth are already bombarded with negative elements from the new media via the internet, which is challenging enough to resolve, and now we want to add negative elements from movies,” he remarked.
“This move will threaten us from all angles. We need a credible body such as the Censorship Board to ensure movies aired are suitable for us,” he said to Bernama.
On Dec 21, Home Affairs secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam announced that effective next year producers in the country were allowed to screen and censor their own movies or dramas.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Malaysian Film Producers Association secretary-general Norman Abdul Halim said the association was capable of rating movies based on its vast experience.
Mohamed Maliki went on to say, apart from being free of negative elements, the movies shown should also be appropriate for the multi-racial society in Malaysia, so as to instill the 1Malaysia spirit among the youth.
“The movies should be modified to ensure they were appropriate for our youth and not touch on any sensitivities of our multi-racial communities,” he emphasised. Asked to comment on the matter, the National Islamic Youth Association secretary-general Salman Abdul Rahman was of the opinion that strict censorship did not tamper with the creativity of a movie, provided it was in a positive form.
“If we see, in the West especially, independent movie producers have two creativity angles, negative and positive. Negative creativity is in the form of violence and sex, which our movie producers need not emulate, “ he elaborated.
“Positive creativity with movies on resilience and patriotism should be role models. So we need a body like the Censorship Board to screen the work of our movie producers,” he said.
Bernama spoke to two youths for their view on the matter, Nur Jaziedah Jeed Zulkefli, 23, and Amileen Nadia Roslee, 20.
Nur Jaziedah, who works in broadcasting, felt self-censorship would give producers a wider artistic scope and result in movies with a broader perspective.
“The producers would have greater responsibility to ensure their censorship was accurate and suitable for viewers. This would allow them to mature and produce better quality movies,” she said.
Amileen, a private sector staff, however, preferred censorship to be left to the Censorship Board as she thought it was a more effective and capable body.
“Censorship must be effective to ensure negative elements in movies don”t influence the youth and doesn”t encourage them to get involved in such activities,” she emphasised.
— BERNAMA
Sumber: Utusan Malaysia