Posted by
wetbenang
at
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
PROGRESS AND THE POLITE SOCIETY
Last Sunday, like millions of other (Malay) Malaysians, I parked myself in front of the telly to watch the weekly Akademi Fantasia 4 concert. Not so much by choice, but by default. Because when it comes to AF4 and the programme's twice-daily updates, my adik Wan rules. He takes over the house and conquers the remote control. So, macam rela terpaksa la ni.
As much as I want to be nonchalant about AF4, I have to admit that there are a couple of good talents in there -- particularly Farhan and Velvet. The rest is rather forgettable.
Anyway, what I'm about to rant next is already being discussed by satu Malaya. Yup, critic Adlin Aman Ramli and his frank and cutting comments, which spare no one. Not the "students", nor the "faculty members" of AF4. Not even the guest artistes.
Adlin has received a lot of flak it seems for his "stay away from drugs" advice given to one of AF4 favourites Faizal, after the latter finished his performance, which was accompanied by Saleem, once a great singer beleaguered with dadah problem. Some people think the "advice" was so un-called for as it was basically nothing more than a cheap shot meant for Saleem.
Now, no one knows for sure what Adlin's intention was. For all we know, he was just, well, giving advice to someone who he felt could have a future in the industry.
Me, the moment I heard Adlin, I went, "Yes!! Finally! Someone is saying something about this, and so strongly, too!" That's progress, I thought. I mean, sampai bila should we continue to be polite about the subject? Sampai bila are we to continue to give multiple second chances to dadah abusers?
Astro pun satu hal. What kind of signal is it giving to its mostly young viewers when it continues to give face/exposure to repeat dadah offenders? It's OK to take drugs, kids, if you're a pop star? No matter how many times you erred, we would always welcome you back because you're such a great singer? Tolonglah!
How many dadah abusers are there in the entertainment industry still idolised by millions? I can name a few. Ni yang saya tak paham ni. And why we are encouraging our youngsters to root for them, I also don't understand...
And then, when someone somewhere has enough guts/balls to say something, dia pulak yang kena marah. Tak sopan la, kurang ajar la, tak kena tempat la. Semuanya nak kena berlapik.
To me, it was so tak kena tempat on the part of Astro to have invited that particular dadah junkie, or any other drug offenders/addicts, to be on the show. Millions of ringgit is being spent by the government, NGOs, corporate sponsors and other bodies in the national fight against dadah. Yet, orang-orang yang hisap ganja, yang keluar masuk pusat serenti, yang keluar masuk mahkamah disebabkan dadah, these are the ones yang masih disanjung dan diusung ke sana ke sini. Nak kasi diorang peluang/ruang kedua.
Now, I'm not an incompassionate (is there such an adjective?) person. I am. If you do wrong, I'll give you a second chance to correct the wrong. But if keep repeating the offence macam ulang-tayang drama Melayu kat Astro, sori la beb, out you go, finish, bye bye.
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I am so agree with you. Enough with the backtalkers in our society. Afraid to sya it loud but still gossiping and send wrong signals.
Jeez,my dad bought Kosmo! newspaper..... I can tell you that newspaper is a waste of space and I can't believe that the distribution is increasing by days.....
God saves us all
Irwan said...
7:50 AM
irwan: Well, increase in circulation means more people are buying and reading the newspaper.
Which is good, unless, of course people are buying the newspaper to read only certain types of stories....
wetbenang said...
2:33 PM