The Boundarification of Malaysian Society (2009)

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SEPET >> GUBRA >> MUKHSIN

Yasmin Ahmad’sYasmin Ahmad’s

ORKED!The TrilogyThe Trilogy

6-PAGE EXCLUSIVE!

THE BOUNDARIFICATION OF MALAYSIAN SOCIETYHow Yasmin’s work refl ects Malaysia -How Yasmin’s work refl ects Malaysia -& how it recommends change.& how it recommends change.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

THE TRILOGY STORYLost (in) the plot? We plug the gaps!Lost (in) the plot? We plug the gaps!

Vol. 1/No.1/2009

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Joshua Ng

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

THE TRILOGY STORY

YASMIN’S AHMAD’S “ORKED” TRILOGY SEES THE “BUMIGEOISE” (MALAY, AND MIDDLE CLASS – AS COINED BY ALFIAN SAAT) LONGING FOR THE ETHNIC OTHER.

Sepet

(2005) (Slit Eyes in reference to Malaysian-Chinese).

Orked is a young, well-spoken and feisty Malay lady who has just finished her secondary school educa-tion. She ends an abusive relationship with her Ma-lay ex-boyfriend. On the other side of town, Jason is a working class Chinese boy sells bootleg DVDs. When they meet at the marketplace where Jason works, sparks fly. Orked’s friends more then slightly disapprove of the inter-racial relationship, while Jason’s Chinese friends and Nyonya mother come to accept it quite easily.

The only problem is that Jason brings excess bag-gage into the relationship. He has ties to a Chinese secret society, and has impregnated the sister of the gang-leader. When Orked learns about Jason’s past, she withdraws from the relationship and eventually gets back together with her Malay ex-boyfriend. She does not realize that Jason has no love for the Chinese girl, and only promises to marry his ex-lover to legiti-mize the pregnancy and newborn baby. By the time Orked finally learns that Jason’s motives for marry-ing the girl were pure, she has received a scholarship to study in England and is on the way to the airport. In the end, the Orked-Jason (read: Malay-Chinese) relationship proves to be impossible love. The film ends when her attempt to reach out and tell Jason she loves him fails, and her phone call to Jason (while he rushes on his motorbike to the airport) kills him.

When Jason & Orked meet

in Sepet...

It may not have been their fi rst time...

And boy has Jason changed

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THE TRILOGY STORY

Gubra(2007) (Anxiety)

Orked is now married to a Malay man much older than she is. Ariff actu-ally seems to be a respon-sible and lov-

ing man. Life seems to have turned out well for her – she lives in a comfortable, mid-dle class home and even rides a lux-ury saloon, thanks to her husband. Things seem to be wonderful. But Orked’s dad experiences a heart attack. This leads Orked to meet Allan, Jason’s older brother, and to also find out that Ariff has been cheating on her. Orked leaves Ar-iff and the film ends with Alan giv-ing Orked Jason’s box of memories of her. The post-credits scene gives the viewer some closure on the Orked-Jason re-lationship with a snapshot of an alternate universe where Jason and Orked are happily married, and wake together in the morning for Islamic prayers.

In a rural part of Ma-laysia, a stark contrast of two worlds co-exists. A Muslim Bi-lal (religious leader who

calls Muslims to prayer) and his wife Wan live next to two Malay prostitutes. Temah

is the older of the two sex work-ers. When she discovers she is HIV positive, Wan offers to take Temah’s son (Shahrin) into the Bilal’s household. Temah’s prob-lems are exacerbated when Shah-rin’s father returns to plunder her hard-earned money. But the Bi-

lal will not stand for such a trans-gression, and makes sure the money

is returned to Temah. By the film’s close, Temah has succumbed to her disease.

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Yasmin Ahmad (1958-2009)

*

*

*

Mukhsin

(2007)

The film is a prequel, a retold diegesis from Orked’s perspective. She narrates the story of her epon-ymous first love at ten years old. It is revealed (perhaps unsurprisingly) that Jason had his eyes on her even before Orked meets Mukhsin. The Orked-Mukhsin romance takes place one sum-mer break d u r i n g O r k e d ’ s p r i m a r y school days. Mukhsin is a boy from another vil-lage, who comes from a difficult family. He and Orked seem to be a reasonably compatible couple. But Orked cannot seem to remove Jason from her memories. But since Orked is the narrator of the film, it is unclear whether Jason is added fictitiously or if he really was a part of her childhood. Young

Jason staring longingly at Orked in 2 almost ran-dom scenes. Doppelgangers of Jason and Orked – married with kids – appear in her kite-flying memories with Mukhsin, effectively a continuation of the post-credits alternate reality in Gubra. To-wards the end of summer, Orked and Mukhsin fall

out because of her boy-ish insistence on playing Galah Pan-jang (a Malay field game). Finally, Orked c o n c l u d e s

the narration of her memories, dwelling on the first time she met Jason during childhood, and musing that “lovers don’t meet each other some-where; they’re in each other all along. We don’t always find the one we carry inside us. But love is kind. He gives us second chances. I found mine.”

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ETHNIC BOUNDARIES

In her trilogy, Yasmin most clearly identifies a Malaysian society where “race” is arbitrarily politicized, and ethnic groups are systematically dis-associated one from another:

In Sepet, Keong agonizes that “hun-dreds of years ago it was so easy [Chinese and Malays intermarrying] and now that we’re supposed to be civilized, it’s hard.” With this, Yas-

min alludes to deep historical issues behind the constructed racialization of Malaysia. She essentially decon-structs the epistemological categori-zation of “races” in colonial Malay-sia. Keong hints at an “easy” past of non-racialism, where the Malays had no conception of race before colo-nization – bangsa (race) was a term borrowed from other vernaculars, the “races” were originally amalgamated in a pluralistic mélange of society.2

When Jason and Orked meet for the first time, their encounter takes place in at the pasar pagi (morning mar-ket).

Joshua Ng

THE BOUNDARIFICATION THE BOUNDARIFICATION OF MALAYSIAN SOCIETYOF MALAYSIAN SOCIETYININ the context of contemporary global capitalism, words bandied about the context of contemporary global capitalism, words bandied about like “progress”, “modernity” and “globalization” often polarize the “tradi-like “progress”, “modernity” and “globalization” often polarize the “tradi-tional” and “modern” elements of societies. Malaysia, in search of its posi-tional” and “modern” elements of societies. Malaysia, in search of its posi-tion in such an era, also naturally grapples with these issues. Only it does tion in such an era, also naturally grapples with these issues. Only it does this from the viewpoint of a secular, multicultural state (with Islam as of-this from the viewpoint of a secular, multicultural state (with Islam as of-ficial religion). To understand how “traditional” Malaysia might negoti-ficial religion). To understand how “traditional” Malaysia might negoti-ate its contemporary shift into “modern” Malaysia, this film analysis looks ate its contemporary shift into “modern” Malaysia, this film analysis looks at the “Orked” Trilogy and shows its reflections and recommendations for at the “Orked” Trilogy and shows its reflections and recommendations for Malaysian society through the navigation of Malaysian social boundar-Malaysian society through the navigation of Malaysian social boundar-ies. There is a reason why the late Yasmin’s trilogy is particularly use-ies. There is a reason why the late Yasmin’s trilogy is particularly use-ful for this study. She is able to break free of the state-building agendas ful for this study. She is able to break free of the state-building agendas associated with any Ideological State Apparatus. As one of the few inde-associated with any Ideological State Apparatus. As one of the few inde-pendent filmmakers apart from the entirely state-held or state-linked main-pendent filmmakers apart from the entirely state-held or state-linked main-stream media in Malaysia, Yasmin represents civil society and its concomi-stream media in Malaysia, Yasmin represents civil society and its concomi-tant plurality of views about society’s boundaries. I will prove that she tant plurality of views about society’s boundaries. I will prove that she identifies existing social boundaries, and prescribes new potential boundar-identifies existing social boundaries, and prescribes new potential boundar-ies in the films, thus reflecting the reality of Malaysia and simultaneously ies in the films, thus reflecting the reality of Malaysia and simultaneously offering alternative narratives to the normative Malaysian state discourse. offering alternative narratives to the normative Malaysian state discourse. In total, I analyze four inter-connected social boundaries: Ethnic Bound-In total, I analyze four inter-connected social boundaries: Ethnic Bound-aries, Religious Boundaries, Cultural Boundaries, and Gender Boundaries. aries, Religious Boundaries, Cultural Boundaries, and Gender Boundaries.

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Here, Yasmin further illustrates the historical development of the Furni-vallian plural economy which devel-oped during the colonial era in Ma-laysia – different ethnies only met in the marketplace and had limited con-tact in the socio-cultural sphere. She thus alludes to a racially-segregated Malaysia being the product of colo-nialism in the 19th Century.3

Yasmin continues Malaysia’s racial-ization narrative by alluding to the results of the 1969 race riots: the 1971 New Economic Policy and its pro-Malay Bumiputera (prince of the soil) affirmative action policy. Jason scores 7 A1s in his secondary school exams, while Orked does slightly worse at 5 A1s. Yet Orked gets a scholarship to England, obviously aided by the Bumiputera policy. Later in the film, Jason expresses Yasmin’s disgruntlement when he mentions to Keong on the phone that he wants to persuade Orked to “give it up to someone who needs it more”. Yasmin clearly identifies the resulting reified ethnic boundaries and inter-racial suspicion when Keong reveals he has never had enough contact with Ma-lays to even dislike them, and the in-ter-racial couple’s friends don’t lend support for the relationship:

One can already guess at Yasmin’s prescription for an ethnically bound-aried Malaysia. Her famous com-mercial for the Malaysia-owned Petronas, “The Love of Tan Hong Ming” shows a young Chinese boy and Malay girl in love. This became an essentialization of the multiracial “Bangsa Malaysia (Malaysian Race)” idea even before the Orked trilogy was released. Yasmin’s proposed ve-hicle for multiracial society is to cross these ethnic boundaries.

In Mukhsin, Orked attends a Chinese primary school and learns mandarin. She is quizzed by Mukhsin about her father’s decision to send her there, to which she replies “maybe it’s be-cause I already know how to speak Malay.” Through this, Yasmin sets Orked as an example to her viewers, that one can cross ethnic boundaries without losing touch with their eth-nic roots. At the same time, Yasmin makes a statement about inter-ethnic relations. In Malaysian society, non-Malays often feel that their languages are marginalized in school.4 She uses Orked – as a member of the majority Malay ethnic group who surprisingly learns a minority language – to show a real concern for Malaysia’s minor-ity groups.

Ultimately, Yasmin prescribes inter-ethnic marriage as the solution for bridging ethnic boundaries in Ma-laysia. The song that Orked’s family sings in Mukhsin, “Ikan di laut [fishes from the sea], asam di darat [spices from the land]. Di dalam periuk [to-gether in a kitchen], bikin muafakat [making magic in a pan],” is telling about the sort of harmony she pre-dicts from a cosmopolitan mixture of ethnicities. However, the real star of the trilogy – and her inter-marriage thesis – is the Jason-Orked relation-ship. At one

level, the realities of “hyphenated” ethnicities existent in Malaysia5 are reflected in the relationship. Yasmin also carefully depicts the reality of Malaysia’s Sharia Law. In Gubra’s post-credits-scene, an alternate-real-ity Jason and Orked are happily mar-ried, and Jason has converted to Islam. At another level, their boundary-crossing inter-racial romance proves to be so intense that the liminality be-tween the “good” reality (with Orked and Jason married in an alternative story in Gubra, and then with a child in Mukhsin) and the “bad” reality (with Jason dying at the end of Sepet) is not big enough to stop Jason and Orked from loving each other in ei-ther parallel narrative. This is why Jason writes to Orked in Sepet, “I’m going to be with you forever. It’s our 缘份 yuán fèn (destiny).”

The destiny of the different ethnic groups, according to Yasmin’s pre-scription for Malaysia, is to cross the ethnic boundary, marry each other and produce children of mixed eth-

Boundaries?

An idea fi rst popularized by Fredrik Barth (1968) to analyze the interaction between ethnic groups. He argued on one hand, that boundaries could become reifi ed when there was confl ict between two (ethnic) groups, and on the other that mutual agreement could lead to porous, crossable boundaries.

In my analysis I expand his idea of ethnic boundaries to analyze other boundaries too - religious, cultural, and gender boundaries.

“I’m going to be with you forever. It’s our 缘份 yuán fèn (destiny).”

- Jason to Orked

ANALYSIS: The Boundarifi cation of Malaysian Society

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nicity – just as she is one herself.

In short, Yasmin reflects the histori-cal beginnings and contemporary so-cial realities of an ethnically boundar-ied Malaysia. She offers an alternate narrative to the ethnic boundaries through her star-crossed lovers in Ja-son and Orked.

RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES

Yasmin also negotiates and scrutiniz-es the boundaries of Malaysian reli-gious discourse through the Orked Trilogy. She does this by bringing what is real Malaysian coffeeshop conversation to the big screen – ques-tions on whether an act really is mor-ally wrong, or can be acceptable or even right.

In Sepet, Orked walks into a char siew (barbequed pork) stall. The viewer’s immediate reaction is to recoil in horror, for pork is typically seen as haraam (forbidden) to the Muslim. But Yasmin chooses to ensure that the scene is made as casual and can-did as possible, Orked shrugging off the initial panic of having to enter a “non-muslim” space.

Orked meets Jason’s friend Keong for the first time and has a drink while Jason and Keong eat their char siew(!). The viewer inevitably scrutinizes her hands and mouth, and is satis-fied when she personally never eats the haraam pork or transgresses the boundaries of Islamic law. Yasmin’s authorial intentionality surfaces when one realizes that she is satirizing real episodes of religious panic in Malay-sia. Some such occurrences – Piglet soft toys were removed from Guard-ian Pharmacy’s range of Winnie the Pooh free gifts; there were once calls for the film Babe to be banned; one journalist even recounts how a doc-umentary he caught had the word “pigmentation” censored.6 Yasmin

cleverly uses the well-defined bound-ary of eating pork which is haraam, to show that entering a char siew stall does not by definition make one a pork-eater. If one can accept this, then one can also acknowledge that the calls for the removal of Piglet, Babe and “Pigmentation” are in fact culturally-constructed failsafes rather than being part of Muslim religious boundaries. Yasmin has thus identi-fied a set of “religious” boundaries which are subject to societal distor-tion.

In Gubra, the bilal (religious leader who calls on Muslims to prayer) is on his way to the mosque. He sees a dog in the middle of the road, checks to see if anybody’s watching, and pro-ceeds to pat the dog. “This time she’s really done it,” the viewer first chokes in reaction. But the Bilal is then clearly shown to be rescuing the dog from being again maimed by traffic, as the dog limps away on three legs.

This then opens up the same discus-sion as with Orked and the char siew: In fact, the dog is not haraam, but its saliva and nose are. With proper cleansing rituals, the bilal would be able to resume his duties. The issue of religious boundaries surfaces here again. Malaysia’s interpretation of Islam is based on Mazhab Shafie ide-ology (a particular Islamic school of thought). This leads to the realization that the dog might not be haraam un-der another set of Islamic boundaries. Most significantly, Yasmin problema-tizes the issue of saving a life versus merely “keeping oneself clean”. Is saving an animal – about which the prophet Mohammed preached kind treatment to – less important than the socialized values of a Muslim community which often treats dogs in general (and not their saliva and noses) as haraam? With this, Yas-min re-examines the conventional boundaries of Islam to show that the boundaries of many socialized “reli-gious” norms need re-thinking.

In the pre-credits scene of Gubra, Yasmin juxtaposes the prayers at a Buddhist temple, an Islamic mosque, and a Christian church. The multi-faith prayer scenes interpolate and fit seamlessly with one another.

ANALYSIS: The Boundarifi cation of Malaysian Society

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Here, Yasmin makes recommenda-tions to set new boundaries for Ma-laysia’s nascent religious pluralism. Her rendition of the various faiths operating side by side contrasts various Prime Ministers’ past pro-nouncements that Malaysia is an Is-lamic state.7 In fact, Yasmin is more accurate in her portrayal of reli-gious pluralism in Malaysia because its constitution declares it a secular state.8 Her narration of a harmoni-ous multi-religious Malaysia attempts to bridge the Muslim/non-Muslim boundary, then recently exacerbated by the Lina Joy controversy.9 At the same time, Yasmin has managed to bring the two seemingly disjointed storylines in Gubra together through this sequence of religious pluralism. Through this she chooses to focus on the inclusiveness that religion can bring to society, thus reflecting the more open, progressive views of the popular Islam Hadhari (civilizational Islam) movement in Malaysia.10 Such an expanding view of Islamic bound-aries is symptomatic of a wider trend of globalization in Malaysia. In Yas-min’s humanistic discourse, Malaysia should work towards new boundaries of religious pluralism. Gubra closes with “the lamps are different, but the light is the same”.

CULTURAL BOUNDARIES

Yasmin reflects the boundaries of a cosmopolitan, glocalizing Malaysia superimposed against the boundaries of a withdrawn, ethnic-nationalist society.

In Mukhsin, Orked’s dad has a jam band comprising various western in-struments – bass, guitars, and violin. They play a self-composed, Malay song as Orked and her mother dance in the rain to the Latin American cha-cha-cha and Taiwanese dances. This cosmopolitan fusion of the global and the local (they dance in a sub-urban village setting) is a pleasant mix-up of modern and traditional forms. But it is sharply interrupted by a snide neighbor’s comments that these are “Malays who have forgotten their roots.” Here, Yasmin analogizes the snide neighbor to conservative elements in Malaysia who insist on drawing strict cultural boundaries.

Yasmin lived in a Malaysia which had cancelled the pop star Beyonce’s titillating performances and chas-tised other international acts for be-ing “immoral”11 – a contradiction to Kuala Lumpur’s goals of economic globalization and “Visit Malaysia”12 tourism. As a result of these un-budging cultural boundaries, Ma-laysia subsequently lost the business of other international acts including Cold Play, Christina Aguilera, Eric Clapton and the Red Hot Chili Pep-pers to Singapore.13 Later in the film, Yasmin shows the private triumph of glocalization when Orked’s family quite literally embraces the song “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (If you leave).

The well-known tune has been trans-lated from the original French and covered in at least twenty languages by various artists, clearly an icon of

the glocal. When the family takes up a very natural waltz, the viewer wonders whether the waltz was even originally European. Their well-co-ordinated glocalized dance now goes uninterrupted, as any potential inter-pellator – this time Mukhsin – watch-es from outside, unable to intervene. This indicates that Yasmin prescribes the expansion of cultural boundar-ies in acceptance of cosmopolitanism and cultural pluralism.

GENDER BOUNDARIES

Finally, Yasmin reflects the gendered boundaries of Malaysia and offers an alternative discourse, the widening of these boundaries.

In Mukhsin, the playground where Orked and Mukhsin meet is a strict-ly gendered space. The boys play Galah Panjang (a field game) while the girls play bride-and-groom. One girl asks Orked why her father helps her mother out in the kitchen, “is it because your father is hen-pecked?” Through Orked’s determination to transgress these gender boundaries, Yasmin makes her commentary on Malaysian society. She challenges the stereotype that the woman’s place is in the private sphere (the kitchen, where Orked’s father helps) and not in the public sphere. This alludes to Malaysian politics, where there has never been a female Prime Minister, and there is a disproportionate num-ber (24 of 222) of female members of parliament in the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives).14 On top of this, women are often faced with a glass ceiling in the economic sphere. When Yasmin portrays Orked to be well-spoken, even teaching Mukhsin to speak proper English, she high-lights the disparity between the edu-cation level of women and their ac-cess to the public sphere of Malaysian society. While women outnumbered men in the 2006-2007 intake to local

Glocalization?

Originally a Japanese term to illustrate how global ideas are adaptable to the local level. This suggests that globalization does not simply erode local cul-ture, but rather - presents an opportunity for cultural ex-change.

ANALYSIS: The Boundarifi cation of Malaysian Society

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universities,15 they are denied equal access to the public spheres of poli-tics and the economy. Yasmin com-pletes the analogy when Mukhsin kicks Orked out of the public male space of the Galah Panjang, with to-tal disregard for the bond they share.

Next Yasmin offers her solution – the Malaysian woman should expand the boundaries of her agency without abandoning her role as nurturer:

In Mukhsin and Gubra, two women are victimized in the same way – they have adulterous husbands. But their characters and response differenti-ate the outcome of their plight. In Mukhsin, Orked’s neighbor is shown to be the traditional woman who had earlier criticized the uninhibit-ed Orked and her mother for losing sight of their roots while dancing in the rain. She fulfils all the traditional roles of wife and mother – staying at home, learning to cook her husband’s favorite foods and bearing him two children. But as the film closes, her traditional means of winning him back fail; she is tearfully unable to stop her husband from leaving.

In contrast to the “conservative” woman who has lost her battle, Orked responds in power by abusing the cheating Ariff in English and Malay, and by throwing punches at him. She finally expels Ariff from her life, but not before humiliating him in front his lover.

By contrasting these two archetypal women, Yasmin has cast doubt on the Malaysian woman’s traditional disempowered response to men. She shows Malaysian women that they can be initiators and not just passive receivers. This is perhaps a response to the state of real husband-wife treatment in Malaysia, including di-vorces resulting from mobile phone text messages. In essence, Yasmin’s prescription for such mistreatment is expanding the boundaries of the in-dividual agency of women – to mod-ernize, be socially and economically empowered and be able to respond to spousal abuse. With this, Orked is able to treat Ariff the same way she was treated – “You promised apa that you would never hurt me [you broke that promise, now I’m breaking mine]. It’s modern times, sayang.”

But Yasmin never allows her sug-gested boundaries of the modern woman to be led astray. In Gubra, the modern middle-class Orked is ini-tially shocked when she enters Alan’s bare-bones working class flat. It is a sharp contrast to the luxury she is seen to have lived in with Ariff. But Orked’s discomfort quickly dissolves into tears when she is presented with the box of memories Jason has kept of her. It turns out that mate-rial comforts are less important to her than matters of the heart; Orked has preserved her “soul” in the midst of all her modernity. Through this, Yasmin reflects the many career-women in Malaysia who have pushed the boundaries of their gender, are educated, command good salaries, yet

are unafraid to be in touch with their emotions and to get their hands dirty – one of whom is Yasmin herself. On top of this, Yasmin never lets her icon of the modern woman get into sexu-ally compromising situations. We see this in Sepet where Orked struggles to free herself from Johari’s sexual assault, and in Mukhsin where she does not allow Mukhsin to sensually touch her. “Don’t touch me like that,” she chastises, “it tickles”.

Here Yasmin evinces that a modern woman’s expanding boundaries do not include sexual deviance. This in turn is a commentary on a society which displays moral panic each time women’s bodies are at stake. Such episodes happened in 2005 when the International Islamic University in Malaysia coerced a non-Muslim girl into wearing a tudung (headscarf), when the singer Beyonce was recent-ly banned for “immoral” costumes,16 and when fatwas (religious laws) were issued against wearing heavy lipstick or high heels, entering beauty pag-eants, and even “tomboy behavior”.17 Finally, Yasmin ensures that the ex-panding boundaries of her modern woman does not mean a shift away from a woman’s nurturing role. In Gubra, there are two instances of women who while at work simulta-neously fulfill their traditional roles as nurturers and providers by calling home and giving cooking instruc-tions. Their presence is so understat-ed in the film that the viewer could easily miss them. Yet Yasmin in-tentionally weaves them quietly into the subtext of the film to show that the modern woman still works dili-gently behind the scenes to provide for their families both in the public sphere and the private sphere. This is a keen reflection of the “supermom syndrome” indentified in many of the career women of Malaysia.

CONCLUSION

ANALYSIS: The Boundarifi cation of Malaysian Society

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Through identifying and challenging the norms of society, the Orked Tril-ogy clearly elucidates the existing ethnic, religious, cultural, and gender boundaries in Malaysia – and how they could be in the future. Yasmin’s observations of a racially-segmented, religiously-socialized, culturally-rig-id and patriarchal Malaysia are off-set by her prescriptions of multira-cialism, religious pluralism, cultural diversity, and gender equality. The Orked trilogy can thus be seen as a blueprint bridging the gap between “traditional” and “modern” Malaysia. These are three films any academic of Malaysia and Southeast Asia in general should not miss.

The author wishes to thank the fol-lowing for their intellectual contri-butions: Dr Rusaslina Idrus from the Institute of Southeast Asian Stud-ies in Singapore, and Professor Wan Zawari Ibrahim from the department of Anthropology and Sociology in the University of Malaya.

REFERENCES

1 Tan, Jun-E & Ibrahim, Zawawi. (2008). Blogging and Democratiza-tion in Malaysia – a New Civil society in the Making. Petaling Jaya: Strate-gic Information and Research Devel-opment Centre. p. 14.

2 Lian Kwen Fee (2006). Race and Racialization in Malaysia and Singa-pore. In Race, Ethnicity and the State in Malaysia and Singapore. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. p. 219.

3 Lian Kwen Fee (2006). Race and Racialization in Malaysia and Singapore. In Race, Ethnicity and the State in Malaysia and Singapore. Le-iden: Koninklijke Brill. p. 219.

4 Lee, Hock Guan. (2006). The Globalization and Ethnic Integration in Malaysian Education. In Malaysia, recent trends and challenges (eds. Saw Swee-Hock and Kesavapany, K.). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 231.

5 Yin Ee Kion. (2008). Through Race Tinted Glasses. In Out of the Tempuring, critical essays on Malaysian society (eds. Fong Chin Wei and Yin Ee Kion). New South Wales: East West Publishing. P.299-300.

6 Surin, Jacqueline Ann. (2008). On a tolerant Islam, in Shape of a Pocket. Petaling Jaya: The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd. p. 193.

7 New Straits Times. (18 July, 2007). Najib: We are not secular. Re-trieved from factiva on 22 October 2009.

8 New Straits Times. (19 July 2007). MCA: We are a secular nation. Retrieved from factiva on 22 October 2009.

9 Loh Kok Wah, Francis. (2009). Merdeka, Modernity and the Lina Joy Controversy. In Old vs New Poltics in Malaysia. Petaling Jaya: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. pp. 224-225.

10 Chong, Terence. (2006). The Emerging Politics of Islam Hadhari. In Malaysia, recent trends and chal-lenges (eds. Saw Swee-Hock and Kes-avapany, K.). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 26

11 Yoong, Sean. (2009). Be-yonce delays Malaysia show amid Muslim criticism. Associate Press. Retrieved 22 October 2009 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_malaysia_people_beyonce

12 Gatsiounis, Ioannis. (2008). Beyond the Veneer, Malaysia’s Strug-gle for Dignity and Direction. Singa-

pore: Monsoon Books Ltd. p. 143.

13 Gatsiounis, Ioannis. (2008). Beyond the Veneer, Malaysia’s Strug-gle for Dignity and Direction. Singa-pore: Monsoon Books Ltd. p. 149.

14 Inter-Parliamentary Union. (2009). Malaysia, Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives). Retrieved 22 October 2009 from http://www.ipu.org/parline/reports/2197.htm

15 Surin, Jacqueline Ann. (2008). Old Habits Need Changing. Petaling Jaya: The Edge Communica-tions Sdn Bhd. p. 137

16 United Press Interna-tional. (2009). Beyonce’s Malay-sia show postponed. Retrieved 22 October 2009 from http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Music/2009/10/20/Beyonces-Malaysia-show-postponed/UPI-53571256049995/

17 Sisters in Islam. (2008). Ma-laysian Insider – Threat to Ban Yoga Tests Boundary of Tolerance. Re-trieved 22 October 2009 fromhttp://www.sistersinislam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=874&Itemid=195

FILMOGRAPHY

Ahmad, Yasmin. (Director). (2005). Sepet [Motion Picture]. Malaysia: Golden Satellite

Ahmad, Yasmin. (Director). (2007). Gubra [Motion Picture]. Malaysia: Golden Satellite

Ahmad, Yasmin. (Director). (2007). Mukhsin [Motion Picture]. Malaysia: Dragon Jester Entertainment

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