James Lee’s “Dah Daftar ke Belum?”
by Zedeck Siew
Directed by eclectic filmmaker James Lee, featuring excellent actor / stage director Nam Ron, on smoking for the national good and traffic light-ridden ways forward:
A little late for this term, of course — but still entertaining, and hugely relevant.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:44 am
haha, nice James. i dah daftar. lamalah tu.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:09 am
In keeping with the Mak Bedah-WCI spirit, bukan saja datuk-datuk bapak-bapak yang berjuang untuk bebas dari (neo) penjajah. tapi mak-nenek jugak okay? Go Mak Bedah!
Brilliant nonetheless!
February 26th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Hey Fiona:
Good catch; I should have picked up on it …
That aside, this is my favourite single piece of election-time activism yet. “Jalan mana yang paling banyak dipilih, jalan tulah yang akan bawak kita semua ke depan. Suka ke, tak suka ke … mereka kenalah ikut jalan ni.” If you want change you’ve got to vote for it; non-voters have no right to complain. But, more generally, the subtext of what Nam Ron says is that you have to actively participate in the fight for what you believe in. Passive-observer types deserve whatever shit they’re in / should know better.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Namron looks like Billy Ocean…!!!
February 27th, 2008 at 1:37 am
HMMMMM…yes…but “jalan ni” is not and should not be thought of as the only road to change. In fact, one could well argue that voting is one of the most inefficient ways of bringing change, especially when the only choice offered on the ballot is between Tweedledee and Tweedledum (to borrow an Ani diFranco lyric). Hence the brilliance of the simile of smoking to membuat pilihan. Even if you think of it as berkorbaning untuk negara, there’s no denying that it’s a cancer stick. So, Namron’s resigned, “Itu pilihan,” is an invitation for us to ask, “Hanya itu saja ke yang boleh dipilih?” And then we have to start racking our brains as to finding different ways to create change, and then summoning the guts to carry them out.
I am speaking, of course, as someone yang sudah daftar but due to the bureaucratic mess and ineptitude of both the SPR and Malaysian Consulate, I will not be able to vote from overseas. This despite months of trying to figure out the voting process from abroad. “Jalan ni” is full of road blocks and potholes.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Hey Fiona:
Er, we are saying the same thing. James’s spot is hardest on the people who don’t start down any sort of jalan, and then complain about the road when they are dragged along. He’s referring to elections, of course — but talking about the struggle for independence (which had little in the way of actual voting, though chock-full of politicking) means that the commentary’s net is wider cast. “Passive-observer types” is a definition under which non-voters are a subset, but my point is that inaction also grips the general public — especially when it comes to “racking our brains as to finding different ways to create change,” or more crucially, “summoning the guts to carry them out.”
Change has been seeded in different varieties, lately — I know of a fairly sizable group who are conscientiously boycotting the elections altogether, and more people than usual are talking about widespread social change instead of mere regime swaps — but whether these groups have the stamina to stick to their bumpy jalans is yet to be seen. Sadly, the silent majority of Malaysian liberals fear upheaval (worse, they may fear fortitude. “alamak, he / she’s touching on sensitif issues, i better distance myself,” is a familiar phenomenon to us all). I’ve expressed elsewhere that I think this fact will cost us our country, and we’d deserve that outcome.
By the way, that’s a interesting read of Nam Ron’s rokok — though, following the logic of the metaphor, not smoking is a pretty benign (positively — well, positive) choice, right? There is a good / bad binary in that anecdote, though it’s dressed up in rhetorical play. If there’s a point there, it’s: “You have to think about what people tell you, because style can obfuscate substance.” To me, the “freedom fighter” citation is where the idea we’re discussing comes out; the smoking’s just an ironic riff of comedy. Brilliant, no doubt — but sometimes a cig is a cig. That’s just my guess; have to ask James.
(I’m more interested in the guy cycling in the background, though.)
February 27th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Yes, yes, yes, and yes–no ifs, ands, or butts.
Don’t ask James lah. It’ll take the fun out of reading. Although, I’m curious as to who wrote the script…
April 26th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
u go james:)