MGM 2008: A Review

A grand annual stage play planned and organized by Malaysian students in Sydney, Malam Gema Merdeka, was held last Saturday in conjunction with the upcoming National Day. I was not part the of the production team, merely a staunch audience. It was a good performance overall, kudos to the team that had made it possible.

Here are just some quick personal reviews from me from the seat of an audience.

It was nice seeing a quick showing of Fahmi Reza’s 10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka during the show. I had always been pessimistic that people my age would not be interested in this kind of work, that most of them might not even have heard of this stunning local documentary. I am glad that I was proven wrong. I do not know whose idea was that to include a part of the documentary during the play, but if any of you who are reading this happen to know this person I am referring to, please tell him or her that the inclusion of the documentary had made my day, and that I say thank you.

Little things do paint a stain to a beautifully-crafted picture, and often they piss me off and I am sure sometimes they do that to you too. I do not know whether this feeling stems out from my over-patriotic sentiment, but it pissed me off to see a fellow countryman dropping the country’s flag onto the floor during one of the scene of the play, the same way it pissed me off at seeing people making a mockery of the national anthem in another event a few months back. I know that you were merely acting, but you could have easily got rid of that action and still make the whole play looks efficient. You can say that it is something insignificant, you never intended to do it anyway, but I cannot imagine where do you hold the nation’s pride when you dare putting the nation’s flag on the same level of your feet and still call the action insignificant. The whole country went mad when the picture of someone burning the nation’s flag went around in the months leading up to last March’s General Election, did it ever strike you that such action of yours could also trigger a wave of anger amongst the audience, albeit perhaps miniscule in comparison? Call me of being overly sensitive, but while you are doing that you might want to also have a look at the mirror and see where you stand. What I am asking from you is simple; show a little more respect to my country, our country.

On another note, I overheard many of those who had been involved directly with the production saying how relieved they were now that the whole thing has ended. They should feel that way, given the hard works they had put in to make it a success, weekends they sacrificed for practice, and their time, money that could have been spent somewhere else. I am not quite sure myself how to put this, but I think that putting things entirely at a halt seems to be a mistake, since what lies ahead is a challenge of a greater magnitude in comparison with the efforts to stage the production itself. As cliché as it might sound, the challenge is to not just let the lessons die together with the play, that is to gather as many lessons as we can, instil the values in ourselves so hopefully we can wake up tomorrow a better person than before we were involved with the play. We jump in joy in celebration of our nation’s independence come 31st of August every year, but for what reasons do we celebrate, have we ever given that a thought? In the play, Joe, the main character reflected back on his past, the country’s past, and try to look for rooms in which he could make amends. I personally saw that the aim was good, that is to remind people that history is there for us to learn from. However, the thing about acting and play is that lessons that were meant to be imparted to everyone could easily, immediately fade away as soon as the stage light is switched off. For stage actors, excitements and relief quickly take over once it all ends, while for audience, well, they could be either too upset or too awed by on-stage movements and actions that the thought of analyzing the message brought across never passes through their mind. And so we all resume with our cycle of life on the next day back to square one, having missed the glorious chance to grab the lesson that was well-laid in front of our bare eyes.

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan everyone. Wait, what Merdeka? Tunku Abdul Rahman never endorsed 31st of August as an Independence Day, but rather a National Day. Malaysia was born on 16 September 1963, not 31 August 1957.