Shidah Amren's Research Papers

Berita Harian - Kematianku (Malay)

2011-02-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

Published in Berita Harian on 31 December 2010

SUDAH menjadi lumrah manusia untuk keliru di antara kaca dan permata. Bulan yang singgah di angkasa dan memperlihatkan dirinya pada malam-malam yang tertentu dipuja ramai. Namun, sang matahari yang sinarnya memberi kehidupan bumi setiap hari dianggap remeh. Mungkin kerana kepanasannya yang membuat manusia mengeluh. Mungkin juga kerana kesetiaannya mendampingi bumi sehingga manusia lupa akan kewujudannya di kala sibuk dengan urusan harian.

Perihal yang sama sering terjadi apabila keluarga dibandingkan dengan rakan-rakan. Aku kecewa dengan sesetengah insan yang menjunjung tinggi rakan-rakan mereka tetapi menjatuhkan martabat keluarga. Bagi mereka, hanya rakan-rakan yang dapat memahami, menerima dan menyayangi mereka walau apa pun terjadi. Begitu jauhkah pengorbanan seorang sahabat? Mungkin. Aku juga mempunyai sahabat-sahabat yang aku sayangi. Namun, mampukah mereka menggantikan keluargaku? Aku tidak tahu tetapi apa yang pasti, seandainya aku pergi esok...

Menitislah air mata emak dan bapa. Sebak di hati nenek, insan yang mendodoi dan memanjakan aku sejak aku belum boleh merangkak, membuatkan dia tidak mampu berkata-kata. Aku tahu jantungnya sakit. Nenek yang menghidap penyakit semput buat sekian lama tidak dapat membezakan di antara kesakitan akibat serangan semput atau kepiluan mendalam melihat keadaanku pada hari itu.

Mayat yang terbujur kaku dikelilingi adik-beradik, mak cik, pak cik dan sepupuku. Emak tidak putus-putus mengusap rambutku. Air matanya bercucuran sambil mengucapkan, 'Sayang pergi dulu ya. Nanti emak ikut dari belakang,' berkali-kali. Berat hatinya melepaskan anak sulungnya. Anak yang dibanggakannya selama ini. Anak yang tidak kurang juga kedegilannya. Anak yang ditatangnya seperti minyak penuh bertahun-tahun lamanya sehingga cukup dewasa. Namun, segalanya dititik noktah begitu sahaja. Secepat kilat.

Nenek akan duduk di sebelah kepalaku, mencium berkali-kali dahiku yang kian dingin. Dia enggan bergerak ke mana-mana. Tanganku diurut perlahan. Tangan yang selalu memimpinnya, memeluknya ketika dia sedih, bersalaman sebelum melangkah keluar rumah dan yang selalu mengadu sakit akibat tulis terlalu banyak.

Nenek menunggu. Mulutnya tidak penat memanggil-manggil namaku, seolah-olah mengharapkan ia hanyalah satu mimpi buruk. Dia telah kehilangan suaminya. Kini aku. Cucu yang menemaninya tidur setiap malam, yang selalu mengadu dengkuran kuat neneknya dan yang sedia memasang alat pernafasan ketika nenek diserang semput walaupun jam menuding tiga pagi. Nenek, janganlah menangis sedemikian rupa. Aku risau. Siapa yang akan menemani nenek selepas perpisahan ini? Aku harap, adik bongsuku akan ingat pesanan yang sempat aku sampaikan beberapa ketika dahulu.

'Han, jikalau terjadi apa-apa kepada kakak, Han jenguk-jenguk nenek di bilik ya. Takut nenek kesunyian. Kadang-kadang di dalam gelap, nenek menangis. Jangan biarkan dia keseorangan selalu. Makan atau tonton televisyen di biliknya sekerap mungkin ya.'

Adik-beradikku. Tiga kesemuanya. Satu perempuan, dua lelaki. Adik-adik lelaki aku duduk diam melihat aku terbaring kaku, jiwa meratapi pemergian kakak mereka. Adik perempuanku pula memeluk erat emak. Mengimbas kembali, memang banyak kesalahan aku terhadap adik-adikku. Ada yang telah aku malukan di depan tetamu mereka. Ada yang telah aku menindas dan bersikap kasar demi kepentingan diriku. Namun, walau bagaimana teruk kami bertegang urat, darah ibu bapa yang mengalir di jasad kami membuatkan kami bersatu hati kembali. Kasih sayang yang tidak dapat dipertikaikan atau ditukar ganti. Aku mungkin tidak sempat memohon maaf. Nisa, Wan, Han, kakak minta maaf. Betapa kakak harap engkau dapat mendengar ungkapan ini.

Bapa, seseorang yang bersemangat kuat, terus menguruskan semua pekerjaan yang harus dilakukan. Namun aku tahu, sekali-sekala dia akan memandangku, anak sulung yang dipanggilnya 'berlian', dengan satu pandangan yang sayup. Akan tetapi, dia tahu tanggungjawabnya untuk menyempurnakan aku buat kali terakhir, sebagaimana dia cuba menyempurnakan kehidupan aku selama ini. Ketulan isi keras di hujung jari menjadi bukti kecekalannya membesarkan aku walaupun dirinya menderita mencari rezeki tanpa beristirahat walaupun sehari. Bapa, aku ingin membalas jasamu. Aku mahu memberimu kesenangan tetapi aku tidak terdaya melawan takdir. Bapa, bersabarlah.

Di liang lahad, adik-adik lelakiku dan bapa menurunkan aku. Menghadapkan aku ke arah kiblat, air mata adik bongsuku berguguran tanpa putus tatkala melihat wajah kakaknya yang sering menghiasi hidupnya ditimbus tanah. Matanya tidak berkelipan memandang wajahku yang mungkin hanya dapat dilihat kembali di akhir hayatnya. Sedikit demi sedikit, apa yang dilihatnya kini hanyalah tanah lembut berwarna kemerah-merahan.

Malam itu, emak tidak dapat tidur. Terus menangis dan menangis walaupun cuba dipujuk bapa. Nenek memeluk erat bantalku. Menghidu sisa-sisa bauku sebelum ia hilang dimamah masa. Adik-adikku hanya berdiam diri. Aku tahu, di dalam kegelapan itu, pipi mereka hangat dibasahi tangisan sepi. Mata mereka merah keperitan. Mereka cuba tidur untuk melarikan diri daripada kedukaan hati yang teramat perit tetapi tidak berjaya.

Hati dicengkam perasaan hiba dan rindu walaupun hanya beberapa jam terpisah. Perginya seorang kakak, seorang daripada ahli keluarga mereka, seseorang yang telah membesar dan berkongsi cerita suka-duka bersama.

Mungkin mereka terlelap. Namun, apabila mata dibuka, terasalah sunyi yang memeritkan. Keheningan pagi menyelubungi diri. Cuaca dirasakan begitu dingin. Betapa mereka berharap bahawa semua hanyalah mimpi belaka. Betapa mereka teringin melihatku di dapur bersarapan seperti sediakala. Kesunyian subuh hanya dipecahkan oleh bunyi dengusan kipas angin. Badan terasa lemah tetapi kehidupan harus diteruskan sama ada bersama atau tanpa aku.

Rakan-rakan turut berduka. Pemergian aku mungkin mengingatkan mereka bahawa hidup ini hanya sementara. Rakan yang semalamnya boleh bergurau senda tetapi kini membisu seribu kata. Rakan yang bertubuh gempal kini kembali ke tempat asal segala makhluk. Mampukah mereka mengingati aku selalu? Selamanya? Mungkin. Aku tidak tahu tetapi apa yang pasti, seandainya aku pergi esok...

Keluargaku akan terus merinduiku. Rindu yang mungkin memuncak tatkala Hari Raya menjelang. Walaupun berpuluh tahun berlalu, apabila anak-anak saudaraku yang tidak sempat aku membelai menanyakan ayah mereka akan siapakah itu Mak Long, Han akan terdiam sejenak.

Fikirannya terbang begitu jauh mengingatkan kakak sulungnya yang selalu memanjakannya. Matanya mula berair menahan sebak ketika terkenangkan kisah silam yang hanya mampu difahami dan dirasakan oleh dia dan arwah kakaknya. Kakak yang masih dirinduinya setiap kali masalah menimpa dan dia menginginkan seseorang untuk meluahkan perasaan.

Han mengawal emosinya. Dia berpaling semula ke anak-anaknya seraya berkata: 'Jikalau Mak Long masih hidup, dia akan memanjakan kamu semua sebagaimana dia memanjakan abang-abang saudara kamu, Hakimi dan Hanafi, sebelum ini. Ayah...' Air mata Han terus menitis, 'rindukan Mak Long. Mari kita sedekahkan surah Al-Fatihah untuk roh Mak Long. Mak Long selalu tolong ayah, Pak Wan dan Cik Nisa.'

Aku juga merindui keluargaku. Akan aku tunggu hari yang telah dijanjikan dan ditetapkan oleh Allah yang Maha Esa. Di padang mahsyar nanti, akan aku mencari emak, bapa, nenek, Nisa, Wan dan Han. Semoga kita dapat bertemu kembali setelah sekian lama terpisah, dengan izin-Nya.

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/rencana/story/0,3617,179271,00.html

Berita Harian - Kemaruk Orang Putih (Malay) Part 2

2010-11-19T00:27:00.000-08:00

Published in Berita Harian on 19 November 2010

Kemaruk orang putih
Bahagian kedua dan terakhir

'WANA, lama tak jumpa! Apa khabar kau sekarang?' Esah memeluk eratku.

'Baik alhamdulillah. Kau macam mana sekarang? Dengar-dengar dah tiga anak engkau kan?'

Aku tersenyum lebar melihat wajah jiran tetangga aku dahulu yang semakin bulat.

'Aku O.K. Eh! Anak Yas tu kahwin dengan orang putih eh? Hari itu aku jumpa kakak engkau kat Sentosa. Aku ingatkan orang putih celup mana! Ha... ha... ha..! Aku tanya sikit, jawabnya orang putih. Seksi anak saudara kau tu... Terang-terang pakai bikini. Happening lah keluarga kau!'sambung Esah sambil tergelak.

Aku hanya mengangguk dan memaksakan satu senyuman. Orang kata, cubit paha kanan, paha kiri terasa sakit juga. Itu satu sindiran. Ada kalanya orang kita bermegah tidak bertempat. Megah kerana menjalankan kehidupan seperti orang Barat. Namun, mereka tidak sedar bahawa mereka ditertawakan oleh orang kita, mungkin juga oleh orang Barat. Haruskah aku menasihati Kak Yas supaya dirinya tidak lagi dipersendakan?

Keesokan malam, aku datang menziarahi Kak Yas dan ayah. Seperti biasa, Jiha tidak ada di rumah. Kak Yas nampak riang. Aku rasa inilah masa sesuai untuk memberinya sedikit pendapat aku.

'Kak Yas, Wana cakap sikit Kak Yas jangan tersinggung O.K.?' aku memulakan perbualan.

'Apa dia yang engkau nak cakap?' balas Kak Yas.

'Pasal Jiha,' jawab aku.

'Jiha? Kenapa dengan dia?' Kak Yas sudah mula mengerutkan dahinya.

'Kak, Wana rasa, tidak elok jikalau Jiha dibiarkan tinggal serumah dengan Jonathan. Tidak manis dipandang orang,' kata aku dengan suara yang lembut.

'Eh! Tak apalah. Jiha dah besar. Mereka pun suka sama suka. Apa salahnya? Kau pun, nama aja belajar universiti, otak tu janganlah kuno sangat.'

Percakapan Kak Yas memang tajam jikalau dia tengah marah. Aku sudah bersedia menerima tempisan panas daripada mulut kakak. Bukan hanya sebagai seorang Muslimah, sebagai seorang adik, aku rasa harus aku cuba memperbetulkan perkara yang masih boleh diperbaiki. Aku tidak mahu bersubahat. Jikalau percubaan aku gagal kali ini, itu terpulang dengan Kak Yas. Yang penting, aku sudah menasihatinya.

'Kak, betapa kita moden dan canggih sekalipun, yang haram tetap haram dan yang halal tetap halal. Kita tidak boleh menghalalkan benda yang haram. Agama Islam ialah agama yang boleh jalan seiring dengan arus pemodenan. Tidak perlu kita mengingkari perintah Allah,' aku menjawab.

Muka Kak Yas merah padam menahan marah.

'Jikalau kau hendak beri kata-kata hikmah, buat aja di masjid! Berdekah- dekah cakap pasal agama. Kau ni sebenarnya cemburu kan? Cemburu tengok Jiha ada teman lelaki orang putih?

'Engkau dengan Limah sama sahaja! Aku tahulah anak aku tak sepandai anak korang semua! Tak masuk poly. Tak masuk universiti. Bukan anak korang aje yang boleh ada standard! Kau dengar Wana. Aku tak mahu engkau ungkit pasal agama lagi. Kubur masing-masing!'

Aku beristighfar. Mengapa begitu jauh Kak Yas hanyut? Sangkaannya begitu serong terhadap kami adik-beradik. Aku tidak pernah memandang rendah anak-anak saudara atau sahabat handai aku yang kurang berjaya dalam bidang pendidikan. Itu rezeki masing-masing.

Jikalau Kak Yas berhasrat ingin meninggikan martabat anaknya sekalipun, inikah caranya? Hebat benarkah cara kehidupan orang Barat? Adakah kebebasan yang tiada hadnya dalam isu pergaulan yang dikejarkan?

Banyak bangsa, termasuk orang putih, yang berpusu-pusu ingin mempelajari Islam. Mereka memeluk agama murni ini dan menjadikan Islam pembimbing dan pelita hidup. Sebahagian orang kita pula, yang bertuah dilahirkan sebagai orang Islam, memilih untuk memeluk budaya Barat yang tatasusilanya amat berbeza dan ada kalanya bercanggah dengan agama kita. Hidup ini tidak kekal. Seharusnya kita menggunakannya sesempurna mungkin.

Aku tidak mahu lagi bertengkar dengan Kak Yas. Aku tahu ayah sudah putus asa menasihati Kak Yas. Walau bagaimanapun, aku tidak terperanjat dengan reaksi Kak Yas. Sudah aku temui beberapa orang kita yang sanggup menggadaikan agama, bangsa dan bahasa untuk menggayakan kehidupan orang putih demi menonjolkan ketamadunan mereka. Aku benar-benar hairan dengan kemaruk dan kegelojohan mereka. Tingkah laku mereka boleh dianggap berlebih-lebihan jika dibandingkan dengan cara kehidupan sebenar orang putih.

'Kenapa Wana masuk campur rumah tangga orang? Mestilah Kak Yas marah,' tegur suami aku.

'Wana bukannya apa, dia kakak Wana. Terkilan juga Wana apabila terdengar orang kutuk-kutuk Kak Yas. Kak Yas ingat dengan fasih dalam bahasa Inggeris, hidup macam orang Barat, anak berhubungan dengan orang putih, orang lain akan memandang tinggi dan menjunjungnya. Salah tu. Orang tak pandang pun. Depan dia mungkin orang memuji-muji tetapi di belakang? Kita saja yang dengar,' jelas aku.

'O.K. Sekarang Wana dah nasihat Kak Yas kan? Dia tidak mahu dengar, biarkanlah. Kita doa dari jauh. Yang penting, kita memberi tumpuan kepada keluarga kita sendiri. Boleh Puan Wana?' nasihat suamiku.

Aku memandang lesu suamiku sambil mengangguk-anggukkan kepala.
Beberapa bulan kemudian, heboh di dalam lingkungan keluargaku tentang Jiha. Hubungan Jiha dan Jonathan putus di tengah jalan seperti yang telah kami jangkakan. Kak Yas tetap angkuh. Loghat Inggeris celupnya semakin menjadi-jadi. Agaknya untuk menutup malunya sendiri. Ayah tidak lagi tinggal dengan Kak Yas. Dia kian lebih selesa tinggal bersama aku sekeluarga. Semoga Allah memberi petunjuk kepada Kak Yas sekeluarga. Busuk-busuk pun, mereka merupakan darah daging aku juga.

'Mama, itu Kak Jiha kan?'

Anak bongsu aku menuding jari kecilnya ke arah satu kelibat yang jaraknya agak jauh daripada kami.
Aku menelitinya. Kelibat itu kemudian bergerak dengan perlahan ke arah satu kawasan yang lebih terang. Sah. Itu Jiha bersama seorang lelaki orang putih. Aku yakin itu bukan Jonathan. Mereka begitu intim walaupun di kawasan awan. Aku kesal melihat anak saudaraku menjadi begini. Dengan perlahan, aku memandang semula ke arah anak aku yang masih asyik melihat aksi sumbang kakak saudaranya.

'Salah orang lah Yati,' aku menjawab. Aku tidak mahu anak yang baru berusia tujuh tahun mula memandang serong terhadap kakak saudaranya. Terlebih-lebih lagi setelah melihat adegan- adegan yang tidak sopan oleh pasangan bukan mahram itu. Belum masanya untuk dia mengetahui semua. Manalah tahu di satu masa nanti, Jiha akan berubah menjadi seseorang yang lebih baik.

Seperti yang selalu dikatakan, kita boleh buat sembilan kebaikan tetapi satu keburukan itulah yang sentiasa menjadi bahan mulut orang. Oleh itu, lebih baik aku menutup keaiban Jiha, anak saudara yang masih aku kasihi.

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/mrencana/story/0,6879,176686,00.html

Berita Harian - Kemaruk Orang Putih (Malay) Part 1

2010-11-13T02:39:00.000-08:00

Published in Berita Harian on 12 November 2010

Kemaruk orang putih
Bahagian Pertama

TIPIS bibirnya mengukir satu senyuman. Tubuhnya sasa, tidak kurang hebat berbanding pelakon-pelakon terkenal di dunia Barat.
Kedua-dua bebola mata yang sarat dengan warna biru cair merenung tepat ke arah ku. Aku dapat merasakan kegirangan anak salji ini. Terlebih-lebih lagi apabila dipeluk erat oleh seorang gadis matahari.

Satu ciuman dilekatkan di pipi dan sekilas memaparkan kemesraan pasangan ini.

'Itu kawan Jiha dari Amerika. Nama dia Jonathan,' ujar kakak aku dari belakang secara tiba-tiba. Terkejut aku dibuatnya. Aku menoleh kembali ke potret yang asyik aku hayati tadi.

'Dah berapa lama mereka kenal? Kak Yas tidak pernah beritahu Wana tentang lelaki ini pun?' aku bertanya.

'Satu tahun,' jawab Kak Yas sambil tersenyum lebar.

Ayah yang duduk menyepi di satu sudut sejak aku datang ke rumah Kak Yas hanya memandangku dengan pandangan yang pudar. Ayah nampak semakin uzur. Setelah Kak Yas beredar untuk melayan tetamu yang lain di ruang makan, aku menghampiri ayah lalu aku mengusap rambutnya yang putih berseri.

'Kau tengoklah anak saudara kau.'

Mata ayah mengerling ke arah potret itu.

'Belum ada apa-apa ikatan, dah peluk cium macam gitu sekali. Aku dan arwah mak engkau pun tak ambil gambar macam gitu,' sambung ayah. Suaranya semakin serak.

Tumpuan aku beralih ke ruang makan pula.

Kak Yas sibuk melayan sahabat handai dan ahli keluarga yang lain. Tidak aku dengar sepatah bahasa Melayu pun walaupun yang datang semuanya berbaju kurung dan berkulit hitam manis.

Pelik rasanya. Aku juga belajar sampai ke universiti dan mempunyai ramai kenalan berbangsa putih, tetapi tidak pula pernah aku mendengar loghat yang sedemikian rupa. Ucapan mereka seolah-olah melebihkan belitan lidah, mengalahkan orang putih sendiri. Anak-anak aku khusyuk bermain dengan sepupu-sepupu sebaya mereka.

Perlahan-lahan aku berjalan ke ruang makan dengan alasan hendak mengambil segelas air.

Para tetamu sibuk makan. Hidangan yang beraneka jenis tentu membuat tetamu rambang mata. Namun, apa yang menarik perhatian aku ialah cara mereka makan. Garfu di tangan kiri dan pisau di tangan kanan.

Tidak aku nafikan bahawa demikian adalah cara yang betul untuk makan menggunakan garfu dan pisau. Masalahnya, kita beragama Islam. Oleh itu, tidak elok jika makanan disuap dengan menggunakan tangan kiri - tangan yang digunakan untuk beristinjak.

Mereka meneruskan makan tanpa rasa segan silu, malah bangga dengan cara pemakanan mereka yang betul dari segi adat orang Barat.

Aku kembali duduk di tepi ayah. Sekali lagi dia bersuara: 'Budak orang putih tu bukannya betul-betul hendakkan anak saudara kau. Main-main aje. Ni, dah berapa bulan tinggal dengan lelaki tu? Belum tunang, belum kahwin, dah tinggal sebumbung. Orang putih macam ini, esok lusa dia nak balik Amerika, gigit jarilah Jiha.'

'Kakak kau pun satu. Bangga tidak bertempat. Sepatutnya dia suruh orang putih tu ikut adat resmi kita.'

'Sudah pilihan mereka ayah. Kita nak buat macam mana,' aku berkata dengan nada yang jauh lebih perlahan agar perbualan kami tidak didengari sesiapa.

'Gambar besar-besar. Ayah malu. Macam tidak ada didikan agama. Kalau iya pun, sembunyikanlah gambar itu. Tak perlu tayang di sana sini. Belum tentu ke jenjang pelamin. Sedangkan suami isteri boleh bercerai, inikan pula orang yang takde ikatan? Lain agama, lain budaya,' ujar ayah.

Mukanya merah padam menahan marah dan kecewa.

Aku tahu ayah rimas. Kak Yas sekeluarga memang kerap berbicara dalam bahasa Inggeris. Ayah tidak faham. Oleh itu, ayah rasa dirinya dipinggirkan.

Dulu, aku mengajak ayah tinggal di rumah aku. Namun, pelawaan aku ditolak kerana ayah ingin menetap di rumah di mana dia membesarkan anak-anaknya bersama ibu. Kak Yas membeli rumah ayah beberapa tahun yang lalu.

Selang beberapa minit kemudian, kedengaran riuh di depan pintu. Aku memanjangkan leher untuk melihat siapa yang datang. Oh! Rupanya Jiha dan Jonathan. Kak Yas terus menerpa Jonathan dan mencium pipinya. Aku tahu Kak Yas benar-benar mengharap agar Jonathan mengahwini anaknya. Semakin kembanglah hidung Kak Yas dengan kehadiran Jonathan.

Limah, adik aku yang bongsu, mencebikkan bibir. Cemburu. Limah mempunyai tiga anak dara. Aku bukan jenis yang suka membuat bandingan tetapi aku harus akui bahawa anak-anak Limah memang lebih cantik dari segi paras rupa jikalau dibandingkan dengan Jiha. Jonathan dilayan bak sang putera dari kayangan. Semakin kelat pula loghat Inggeris mereka. Hampir tertawa aku dibuatnya.

Kemudian, seorang anak kecil muncul dari belakang. Duda rupanya. Selepas bersalaman dengan aku, Jiha duduk berhampiran dan memanggil manja anak itu: 'Peter, come here.'

Dia kemudian memangku anak itu di ribanya. Kak Yas bergegas ke Peter dan meminta satu ciuman daripada anak comel itu. Lantas, Peter diciumnya di mulut. Bukan sekali. Bahkan, berkali-kali. Jiha tertawa kecil, seakan-akan seronok melihat aksi dan keramahan ibunya.

Perkara ini memang subjektif tetapi sebagai seorang wanita Melayu, aku berasa kekok. Ayah hanya mengguling matanya ke atas. Setelah aku sekeluarga menjamu selera, aku pun minta diri. Ada banyak lagi rumah yang harus aku kunjungi. Maklumlah, suami aku mempunyai ramai sanak saudara.

Di dalam kereta, aku banyak mendiamkan diri. Bukan jenis aku suka jaga tepi kain orang, tetapi peristiwa tadi memang boleh dijadikan bahan renungan.

Bukan aku tidak tahu berbahasa Inggeris, malah di universiti dahulu, aku mengambil pengajian sastera Inggeris. Jikalau ingin dibandingkan kefasihan aku bertutur di dalam bahasa itu dengan adik-beradik aku yang lain, aku jaguh.

Di tempat kerja, aku pun banyak teman-teman yang berkulit putih. Sebagai warga Singapura, aku akur bahawa Inggeris adalah bahasa utama kita. Ia memainkan peranan penting untuk menjamin pekerjaan yang baik untuk anak Melayu.

Memang tidak salah jikalau anak-anak buah aku suka bercakap dan mendengar lagu dalam bahasa Inggeris. Tidak mengapa juga jika mereka suka makanan dan fesyen orang Barat.

Namun, bagi aku, ia hendaklah bertempat dan seimbang kerana kita harus ingat, kulit kita tetap berwarna matahari.

Agama kita Islam.

Kita tidak perlu menjadi kebaratan seratus peratus untuk menjadi tamadun. Yang baik kita ambil dan yang tidak sesuai dengan agama, lebih baik jika kita hindari.

Biar kita menguasai bahasa Inggeris. Jangan pula kita benarkan bahasa Inggeris menguasai kita. Jangan juga kita menjadi orang yang hidung tak mancung, pipi tersorong-sorong.

Bahkan orang putih sendiri terasa lucu melihat kejakunan kita. Cuma kita sahaja yang tidak perasan.

Bersambung...

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/mrencana/story/0,6879,176252,00.html

Berita Harian - Terikat (Malay)

2010-09-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

Published in Berita Harian 13 August 2010

Terikat
'OSMAN, apa kau buat ni?' tegur Kak Lah sambil mencapai lenganku.

Dia merenung tepat ke arah muka bujur sirihku. Aku terpinga-pinga buat seketika.

Mengapa Kak Lah menanyakan sesuatu yang sudah terang jawapannya? Dahiku berkerut. Inilah kata orang sudah terang hendak bersuluh!

Aku menoleh kembali ke arah seorang lelaki tua lesu yang melentokkan kepala ke kiri.

Tangannya melekat di cermin yang menjadi pengadang di antara aku dan dia. Matanya yang pudar sekilas menunjukkan kesengsaraan yang ditanggungnya dan kehampaan yang dirasainya.

Di mana keluarga pak cik ini? Hatiku mengeluh mengenangkan nasib malang yang menimpa hamba Allah ini yang seumur dengan ayahku.

Walaupun lenganku masih ditarik-tarik oleh kakak, aku tetap menurunkan tingkap kereta lalu menghulur wang lima dolar kepada lelaki itu.

Marah dengan tingkah-lakuku, kakak mengherdik:

'Dasar orang pemalas. Allah pun tak suka dengan perangai macam begini. Apa gunanya ada tangan dan kaki kalau malas hendak berusaha?

'Osman, kau pun satu... jangan bagi muka dengan orang macam gini. Kau tengok orang bangsa lain. Tua-tua macam dia pun masih kumpul tin-tin kosong, surat khabar dan kerja sebagai pembersih. Mana mereka mengemis? Kau pun bukannya kaya sangat.'

Aku mendiamkan diri sahaja. Ini bukan kali pertama aku bertegang urat dengan kakak gara-gara isu menderma.

Siapalah aku? Kakak seorang peguam. Dia bermula dari bawah. Orang tua kami memang miskin. Namun, kegigihan dan kesabaran kakak telah berjaya membawanya jauh daripada status asal kami.

Aku tabik kakak. Tidak pernah dia melupakan jasa baik ibu dan ayah. Dia memang seorang anak yang boleh dibanggakan. Cuma, iyalah, siapa yang tidak mempunyai kekurangan?

Hanyut di dalam kejayaannya, dia mula lupa bahawa tidak semua yang diinginkan dapat dimiliki dengan berusaha.

Baginya, selagi kita usaha, selagi itu kita akan berjaya. Seseorang itu gagal hanya kerana dia tidak cukup kuat berusaha. Itulah pandangannya terhadap mereka yang kurang berjaya dari segi karier mahupun kewangan seperti aku.

Aku seorang penghantar makanan segera sahaja. Anakku ramai. Tujuh orang kesemuanya. Aku anggap itu rezeki tetapi sebaliknya buat kakak.

'Engkau ni Nab, tak ada perancangan keluarga ke? Anak dah enam, dah terkial-kial dengan bil elektrik dan persekolahan anak, itu pun mengandung lagi. Tak kesian ke dengan suami kau?' tegur kakak.

Zainab, isteriku yang sedang sarat mengandung, hanya menundukkan kepala. Aku tahu Nab geram dengan kata-kata tidak bertapis kakak.

Orang yang tidak mengenali kakak akan menuduhnya suka menjaga tepi kain orang tetapi aku tahu niat kakak baik. Dia mahu yang terbaik untuk kami semua.

'Anak itu satu anugerah...'

Belum sempat aku menghabiskan ayat ku, kakak menyampuk.

'Kau tak baca surat khabar ke? Ni lah orang kita. Beranak aje tahu. Lepas tu, anak bersepah. Pelajaran kat mana, akhlak kat mana. Minta CDC, minta Muis, minta sana, minta sini. Anak-anak kau jangan sampai belajar setengah jalan kerana kesusahan dan kegelojohan engkau dah, Man!' Menitis air mata Zainab.

Aku pun naik berang tetapi memandangkan dia kakak aku yang sulung, aku diam. Melihat suasana yang kian tegang, kakak rasa semakin tidak selesa lalu meminta diri dulu.

'Ada benar agaknya apa yang dicakapkan Kak Lah semalam ye bang?' kata Zainab sambil menghidangkan aku lauk ikan bilis sambal tumis dan telur dadar.

Aku merenung muka isteriku. Sudah lebih 12 tahun kami bersama. Zainab, seorang isteri yang sangat sabar dengan kedaifanku.

'Abang minta maaf Nab, sebab tidak dapat memberi kesenangan pada keluarga kita. Sepatutnya abang belajar bersungguh-sungguh dulu,' jawabku dengan nada suara yang rendah.

Sebentuk cincin rotan halus pun tidak mampu aku berikan kepada isteriku seorang.

'Abang, Nab rasa abang yang lebih mengetahui erti berusaha. Abang bekerja hari-hari. Lebih 14 jam pula tu. Tidak ada cuti. Semuanya untuk keluarga. Sedih Nab tengok abang mengokol kepenatan di bilik tiap-tiap malam,' ujar Zainab dengan bergelinangan air mata. Isteri aku memang sensitif orangnya.

Aku membelai rambutnya lalu berkata: 'Nab. Memang Allah suruh kita berusaha. Allah marah dengan orang yang hanya berdoa tetapi tidak bekerja.

'Tetapi, kita harus ingat, walau bagaimanapun, kita tetap terikat dengan takdir Allah. Misalnya abang Nab, Azman. Sudah 20 tahun berkahwin tetapi masih tidak dikurniakan zuriat.

'Doktor sudah memeriksa mereka suami isteri dan kedua-duanya sempurna dan sihat-sihat belaka. Mereka berusaha gigih bertahun-tahun lamanya. Namun, Allah yang menentukan semuanya. Bagaimana hebat seseorang itu pun, dia tetap terikat dengan takdir Allah. Nab faham apa yang abang katakan?'

Zainab mengangguk-angguk kepalanya.

'Rezeki kita memang telah ditetapkan oleh Allah sebegini sahaja buat masa ini. Esok dan lusa, kita tidak tahu. Mungkin lebih baik atau mungkin lebih teruk. Kita hanya berdoa, bekerja keras dan kemudian, bertawakal,' sambung aku.

Malam itu, setelah aku memberi salam, aku mendongak ke langit.

Orang memandang rendah padaku. Aku sedih. Sedih melihat layanan berbeza yang diterima isteriku semata-mata dia tidak berpakaian mewah. Sedih melihat anak-anakku.

Aku hanya mampu memberi mereka tempat berteduh dan makanan. Lebih daripada itu hanyalah sebahagian daripada impianku.

Aku juga insan biasa yang inginkan kemewahan dunia. Puas aku berikhtiar untuk melebihkan pendapatanku demi keluarga. Namun, aku juga sedar betapa aku terikat dengan takdir-Mu.

Ya Allah, kau lebih mengetahui segalanya, apa yang baik dan buruk untukku sekeluarga.

Jikalau kesederhanaan itu boleh mengelakkan kami daripada perasaan takbur, sombong dan kekufuran, kesederhanaan itulah yang kami harapkan. Akan aku didik ketujuh-tujuh anakku dengan sesempurna mungkin. Biar sederhana tapi sempurna. Amin ya rabbal alamin.

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/mrencana/story/0,6879,170619,00.html

Berita Harian - Matematik (Malay) Part 2

2010-09-13T03:19:00.000-07:00

Published in Berita Harian 14 May 2010

Matematik
Bahagian kedua (akhir)

AKU sedang melakar sebuah karangan Melayu yang ditugaskan oleh Cikgu Saleha. Johari, teman sekelas yang duduk di meja berdekatan denganku, memberi isyarat kepadaku sambil mengenyit-ngenyit mata kirinya. Tangannya digerak-gerakkan seolah-olah sedang bermain 'injit-injit (jinjit-jinjit) semut'. Aku memandangnya dan cuba mengertikan makna isyarat tersebut. Puas aku merenung tetapi tidak juga aku mendapat jawapannya. Setelah penat menunggu huraian aku, dia mula membuka mulutnya. Belum sempat sepatah kata dikeluarkan, kedengaran suara Cikgu Saleha bergema di kelas: 'Johari, apa awak buat tu? Cikgu kata jangan bercakap sewaktu melakukan kerja yang cikgu berikan.'

'Saya hendak tanya Kamal apakah perkataan Melayu untuk hike, cikgu,' jawab Johari selamba.

'Hike pun awak tidak tahu? Itulah, cikgu suruh awak semua baca banyak buku Melayu tetapi semua tidak mahu dengar. Hike maksudnya daki. Mendaki,' tegur Cikgu Saleha.

'Terima kasih cikgu,' kata Johari. Dia memusingkan kepalanya ke arahku lalu melemparkan satu senyuman sumbing sebelum sambung menulis karangannya. Tiba-tiba, Cikgu Saleha bersuara lagi: 'Cikgu bukannya apa. Kalau boleh, cikgu mahu awak sekurang-kurangnya berjaya menguasai bahasa ibunda dengan baik. Sedikit sebanyak, markah yang awak dapat boleh membantu markah keseluruhan awak di akhir tahun ini. Maklumlah, kalau hendak harapkan Matematik, sampai bila pun markah awak tidak boleh naik.'

Terpaku aku dibuatnya. Sudah sah cikgu aku pun termakan ideologi loyar buruk ini. Hilang tumpuanku di sekolah buat hari itu. Di rumah pula, aku sibuk mengulang kaji pelajaran Matematik. Tidak sabar rasanya mahu aku buktikan bahawa aku lemah Matematik kerana kemalasanku sendiri dan bukan kerana aku orang Melayu! Bakaku tidak kurang hebatnya daripada orang lain. Semalaman aku tidak tidur. Aku ingin memastikan bahawa kali ini, aku akan mendapat markah cemerlang buat subjek yang sering dianggap satu bebanan buat masyarakat aku.

'Xiu Yong. Ping Hui. Michelle. Ahmad. Yi Yun.' Encik Lee memanggil setiap muridnya bagi memulangkan kertas ujian yang sudah dimarkahkan. Akhirnya, namaku dipanggil. Aku melonjat ke hadapan dan, dengan penuh yakin, aku mengambil semula kertas ujian Matematikku. Berdebar rasanya ketika ingin melihat markah yang tertera di halaman pertama.

Aku berdiri tegak. Tidak berganjak. Hatiku remuk. Suasana riuh-rendah di kelas seakan-akan tertapis di deria telingaku. Aku hanyut di duniaku sendiri. Berat rasanya langkahku mahu kembali ke tempat duduk. Tumpuanku hilang sama sekali. Menyedari mukaku yang pucat, Encik Lee menghampiriku lalu bertanya: 'Kamal, awak okey?' Aku tidak mampu menjawab soalannya. 'Mungkin awak kena kerja lebih keras lagi agar...'

Belum sempat Encik Lee menghabiskan nasihatnya, aku menjerit, 'Sebab saya orang Melayu!' Terkejut Encik Lee serta rakan sedarjahku apabila melihat reaksiku yang pelik. Suasana yang tadinya riuh-rendah menjadi sunyi sepi. Aku mula menangis dan menutup mukaku dengan kedua-dua belah tanganku. Putus asa, kesal dan malu, semuanya bercampur aduk di jiwaku. Beberapa minit kemudian, baru Encik Lee bersuara lagi: 'Jumpa saya selepas kelas ya.'

'Tidak guna cikgu memberi saya kelas tambahan. Tidak memanfaatkan sesiapa pun sama ada cikgu mahupun saya. Memang saya lemah Matematik sebab sudah nasib saya dilahirkan sebagai orang Melayu yang bodoh Matematik. Saya kerja keras pun, apa hasilnya?' Aku meluahkan perasaanku. Buat seketika, Encik Lee memandangku dengan pandangan yang redup dan penuh simpati. Aku tahu Encik Lee tidak akan mampu berbuat apa-apa untuk mengubah nasibku.

'Kamal, awak tahu, satu waktu dahulu ketika cikgu berada di tingkatan awak, cikgu pun lemah Matematik. Puas cikgu belajar tetapi markah yang cikgu dapat gagal menunjukkan kerja keras cikgu selama itu. Cikgu hampir putus asa tetapi cikgu bernasib baik kerana mempunyai seorang guru yang bersungguh-sungguh dan ingin melihat cikgu berjaya. Dia membimbing dan memberi kelas tambahan buat cikgu sehinggalah akhirnya cikgu mendapat gred A1 untuk subjek Matematik. Nama guru itu ialah Cikgu Kassim.'

Cikgu Kassim? Bukankah dia seseorang yang berbangsa Melayu? Belum sempat aku bertanya, Encik Lee meneruskan ceritanya, 'Iya. Cikgu Kassim. Tengok, bangsa Melayu bukan satu bangsa yang lemah dari segi subjek Matematik mahupun moral. Ia juga bergantung kepada struktur Singapura secara amnya dan keinginan seseorang mahu berjaya. Awak harus memanfaatkan sistem pembelajaran Singapura yang memberi awak peluang bagi mendapat pelajaran yang serupa dengan rakan-rakan awak yang berasal dari masyarakat lain. Sama bilik darjah. Sama guru-guru. Tetapi, kekuatan azam dan cita-cita setiap orang berbeza. Jikalau awak sungguh-sungguh ingin menjadi seorang pelajar cemerlang, awak boleh. Ini kerana awak mempunyai potensi yang sama dengan rakan-rakan awak - tidak kira bangsa atau agama. Keutamaan awak harus betul dan kerja keras itu ialah sesuatu yang wajib. Awak mengerti sekarang? Awak gagal bukan kerana awak orang Melayu. Ini bukan satu fenomena buat masyarakat awak. Ujian tadi awak gagal kerana pengetahuan asas awak masih lemah. Oleh itu, kita bermula dari bab yang pertama ya?' Panjang benar nasihat Encik Lee kali ini. Setelah mendengar hujahnya, semangatku semakin membara mahu terus berjuang agar dapat menjadi seseorang yang cemerlang dari segi akademik dan moral suatu hari nanti.

'Termenung jauh nampaknya cikgu?' tegur seorang lelaki yang berpakaian serba biru. Tersentap aku daripada lamunan.

'Abang sudah lama sampai ke?' aku bertanyakan abangku yang sekarang bekerja sebagai seorang jurutera elektrik setelah tamat pengajiannya di ITE.
'Abang baru sampai. Engkau sudah pesan makanan? Abang laparlah. Dari pagi tadi abang belum makan. Di tempat kerja, bekalan elektrik terputus. Itulah, abang sudah pesan semua kakitangan agar jangan menggunakan pendawaian tambahan (extension wire) yang berlebihan. Semua tidak ambil peduli. Kan sekarang satu bangunan menjadi gelap gelita! Siapa yang susah?' leter abangku.

'Ni kirakan mereka tersilap kira lah ni, berlebihan voltan (voltage),' aku mencela.

'Iyalah cikgu Kamal. Agaknya mereka tidak tahu mengira tak? Lebih baik kau adakan kelas Matematik buat semua kakitangan di tempat kerja abang! Jadi, tidaklah mereka menyusahkan abang lagi,' seloroh abangku. Kami berdua pun tertawa sambil menghirup kopi panas.

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/mrencana/story/0,6879,164684,00.html

Berita Harian - Matematik (Malay) Part 1

2010-09-13T03:16:00.000-07:00

Published in Berita Harian 7 May 2010

Matematik
Bahagian Pertama

'NI lu punya ikan,' kata Pak Cik Wong sambil menghulur kembali baki wang ibu. Ibu mengambilnya dan mula beredar. Beberapa tapak kemudian, ibu berhenti dengan tiba- tiba. Dahinya berkerut seribu. Aku memandang wajah ibu yang seolah-olah sedang merenung jauh. Langkahnya dipercepatkan dan dalam sesaat sahaja, ibu telah kembali ke gerai ikan Pak Cik Wong.

'Wong, lu salah kasi gua duitlah. Ikan ni semua $14.20. Gua kasi $20, lu kasi balik $4.80. Kurang $1!' Ibu melebarkan telapak tangannya lalu menunjuk Pak Cik Wong baki yang diterima sebentar tadi. Pak Cik Wong tersenyum. Dia mengeluarkan satu syiling emas dari sebuah bakul kecil berwarna merah dan memberinya kepada ibu.

'Lu banyak pandai ah. Orang Melayu selalu tak tahu kira duit. Apa gua kasi dia orang ambil aja,' seloroh Pak Cik Wong. Gigiku kuat mencengkam bibirku menahan marah. Aku memandang wajah ibu yang ternyata terhibur mendengar kata-kata Pak Cik Wong. Selepas berbalas beberapa ayat, ibu pun mula berjalan meninggalkan gerai ikan tersebut. Aneh rasanya melihat tingkah laku ibuku.

'Kenapa ibu tidak rasa marah apabila Pak Cik Wong kata orang kita tidak tahu kira duit?' tanya aku kepada ibu. Ibu, yang sedang asyik menyiang ikan dari tadi, tersentap mendengar soalanku. Dia menoleh mukanya ke kiri dan memandang tepat ke arah ayahku. Dia seakan-akan mengharap agar ayah dapat memberi jawapan terhadap persoalan aku. Namun, memandangkan ayah tidak mengeluarkan sebarang kata, ibu menjawab, 'Kenapa Kamal tanya? Tidak ada salahnya Pak Cik Wong bergurau dengan ibu. Lagipun, memang benar kata-kata dia tadi. Memang orang Melayu tidak pandai matematik.'

Terbeliak kedua-dua biji mataku mendengar kenyataan ibu. Aku tidak setuju sama sekali. 'Mana ada. Orang Melayu tidak kurang hebatnya daripada orang lain dalam matematik. Ibu tidak seharusnya setuju dengan Pak Cik Wong. Ibu harus memperbetulkan anggapan Pak Cik Wong yang salah!' Aku memberontak. Mendengar ketinggian suaraku, ibu menjadi berang. Dia meletakkan pisau ke dalam tangki basuh lalu berkata: 'Hendak memperbetulkan apa? Orang Melayu kita ni, kalau bidang nyanyian memang jaguh tapi kalau hal-hal matematik atau sains, satu pun tidak boleh harap! Kau tengok abang kau tu. Apa yang dia tahu? Asyik main gitar aje. Bukannya hendak mengulang kaji pelajaran! Kau pun sama. Asyik gagal aje dalam matematik. Sudah beribu dolar ibu keluarkan untuk pengajian privet di rumah tetapi masih dapat dakwat merah!'

Sampai hati ibu berkata sedemikian. Aku terdiam. Ayahku yang dari tadi hanya mendiamkan diri mula bersuara untuk meredakan ketegangan antara aku dan ibu.

'Midah, janganlah awak marahkan Kamal. Kamal, kau masuk bilik sekarang dan belajar,' ucap ayahku dengan nada lembut. Aku menundukkan kepala dan hampir melangkah pergi apabila aku tiba-tiba berkata: 'Kamal gagal matematik bukan kerana baka! Kamal gagal kerana Kamal sendiri yang malas nak belajar!' Air mataku mula menitis di pipi. Ibu dan ayah tergamam.

Bukan maksudku melawan percakapan ibuku. Aku sedih. Aku kecewa. Daripada surat khabar ke majalah, asyik-asyik mempunyai tanggapan bahawa masyarakat Melayu lemah matematik. Apa salah bakaku? Adakah orang Melayu sememangnya merupakan satu masyarakat yang memang serba kekurangan dari segi genetik? Jikalau jawapannya betul, sia-sia sahaja Hang Tuah berkata: 'Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia'. Jikalau semua kesilapan dan kelemahan sosial dituding jari ke arah orang Melayu dan masyarakat Melayu kerap dirundung masalah kerana baka dan tradisinya, lebih baik Melayu hapus sahaja dari muka bumi ini. Apa gunanya menjadi bangsa yang membenarkan orang lain menindas bangsanya sendiri? Aku tidak mengerti mengapa orang Melayu sendiri berbesar hati menerima dakwaan bahawa bangsanya lemah mengira dan bodoh matematik. Banyak juga penuntut daripada kaum lain yang tidak mahir dalam subjek Matematik tetapi mengapa media memaparkannya seolah-olah masalah itu masalah eksklusif orang Melayu? - Bersambung.

http://cyberita.asia1.com.sg/mrencana/story/0,6879,164265,00.html

From Java To Singapore

2010-05-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

From Java to Singapore
HS350 Society And Culture in Southeast Asia
Grade B = a good essay with an attempt to weave theoretical concepts with a case study but I would like to see more solid theoretical argument (more often, you tend to generalize) and a bit deeper interview so that we understand how she negotiates her role as a mother and a wife from afar and how gender roles and norms are being reshaped among female migrants).
Graded by Professor Amporn. The highlighted ones are comments from Professor.

Literature Review
Western social scientists often imposed a universality attitude towards the role of women in society. With industrialization and modernization, women were assumed to be further domesticated rather than taking part in the public spheres. Such perceptions are proven to be incorrect in certain societies, especially those which are found in Southeast Asia countries. Except for Vietnam, countries in Southeast Asia confer relatively high status to women by allowing them to exercise a degree of control in their lives. (elaborate why except for Vietnam. In fact, Vietnam under socialist regime, women enjoyed relatively high status due to the fact that state intervened to give women more rights – see Jocabs 2008) In fact, men and women are viewed as complementary not only in reproduction but also in production (Helliwell year of publication is needed). It is impossible to overlook the importance of women’s economic contribution to household and nation (Esterik 1996). Those who travel around these countries will soon realize that women peddlers or vendors are in constant visibility and the domination of market place by women. In addition, women, both traditionally and presently, are given the role of finance manager. They act as conservers of the family wealth (Esterik 1996: 6). As such, it is hard to dispute the fact that Southeast Asian women play significant and critical role in ensuring the survival of their family (that’s right but you should also point out that the high status of women in Southeast Asia is based on their role in economic production and the predominance of bilateral kinship but in religion and politics, women did not play crucial roles). One possible factor that contributes to its current social and gender pattern is the overall economic well-being of Southeast Asia. The pay for a job done is barely enough to support a family and therefore, everyone in the family regardless of gender is supposed to earn and contributes to the family. For example, in Negara Sakti, Java, economic marginality means that nearly able-bodied adult has to work just to buy enough rice to feed the family (Elmhirst 2000: 217).

The aftermath of these egalitarian relations can be seen in two ways upon the arrival of globalization. One, with improved transport and communication technologies as well as the decline of a number of barriers, including institutional ones, movement of labour and information becomes well facilitated (Resurreccion 2009: 31). As the result, women are mobilized and are able to work further away from their family to clinch jobs which pay them higher salary. Money remitted back home plus their spouse’s income make it possible to enhance their way of livings as the case study will illustrate. Since the ability to finance a family back home is highly valued, the contribution of women working abroad is looked upon. However, such growth in economies does not always ring healthy changes. Women are argued to be passive recipients of change too. While more jobs opportunities are opened for them, they are channeled to low-skilled jobs such as domestic helpers and entertainers or in general term, feminized work (be careful to make such generalized statement, you should always specify which women, what class you are talking about? I believe that you meant here women who traditionally involved in farm work). This is due to the popular belief that women are better nurturer and child-bearer. Therefore, the jobs they do are unskilled because women enter them already determined as inferior labourers and not because they are natural bearers of inferior labour (Resurreccion 2009: 32). This is a contradiction to the previous claim that Southeast Asian women enjoy egalitarian status. However, it can be resolved by the following example. Within Orissan Hindu culture, women are “impure”, a state that renders them inferior to men but at the same time, “auspicious”, a state which speaks of “all that creates, promotes, maintains life” including that of men (Marglin 1985:19, Helliwell). This is similar to the status of women in Philippines and Indonesia in which the women have the desire to get married and have children, to be subordinated yet equal, beautiful, educated and to be a companion to her husband and a mother to her children (Castillo 1976, Neher 1996: 122). Therefore, although women may not hold socially highly regards jobs as compared to their spouses, their economic and domestic contributions to their household allow them to enjoy equal status within the household. Moreover, globalization which allows women to work abroad and earn more money than their husbands back home acts as a buffer in filling in their inability to fulfill their domestic duty of raising their children and looking after their parents. Money changes the rule at home but in the public spheres, the allocation of women to ‘no-brain’ jobs is still prevalent due to the adoption of the Western notion of women’s nurturing and sustenance functions. (who said this? And if this is your argument, I think it’s too generalized and taken for granted. It’s not a simple cause and effect like because we adopt Western notion, and therefore the allocation of women to no-brain job. We need to bring other factors to consider, like industrialization and urbanization, the global division of labor) Other things need to be considered. Hence, in Singapore, we can see a higher percentage of foreign women working in Singapore as domestic helpers rather than professionals.

Case Study

Joha was born in a village at East Java (Jawa Timur), Indonesia in year 1977. She had four female siblings. She studied until secondary two and started working in a factory making sweet soy sauce for a year. Then, she married a local man at the age of 15. She had a son with him and soon worked at a theme park for the next five years. Since her village was located near a town (pekan) and was visited by tourists, she managed to get a better paying job at the theme park. Her husband was a security guard. When her son was in primary four, she decided to work abroad to improve their living conditions. She approached a friend’s neighbor who was looking for female workers for an agency. She took up that opportunity and worked in Singapore. Singapore was chosen due to its close proximity with East Java.

Currently she has worked in Singapore for almost 6 years and 6 months. She does miss her family and calls home once or twice a week. She remitted a huge portion of her salary to her family in East Java and her sacrifices paid off by looking at the fact that her family lives in a brick house (rumah batu) now. Her son who is 16 years old this year is still studying. She recognizes the importance of education and hence ensures that her only child is able to receive complete education and clinches a good job in future. According to Joha, there are few jobs available back at home. Only those who are well-qualified are considered for such jobs. As the results, most of them diversify their livelihood strategies by committing themselves to at least two jobs. Although women form a higher percentage in working abroad, others who stay in the village become full-time housewives (suri rumah). However, she did concur that women are treated well in East Java. The men do not oppress the women and such practices can be seen from her parents’ generation.

With regards to her future, Joha wishes to continue working in Singapore as long as her health permits. She wants to accumulate enough money so that upon her return, she can open a shop and starts her own business.

Analysis

This case study well-illustrates the effect of globalization. Since Joha’s village is situated near a town and is frequent by tourists, corporative farm structure ends and free-market competition emerges. De-agriculturalization also occurs as confirmed by Joha when she mentioned that rice field (sawah) is not a common sight in her area. Spaces are made available to shopping malls and theme park. Searching for jobs become an arduous task and the process of decollectivization causes female unemployment to rise (Java or Indonesia has not been collectivized before unlike Vietnam or other socialist countries). Women are pushed back to a household-based economy or reproductive activities (suri rumah). Therefore, there is an increase need to rely on non-local sources of income. For women in Java, relatively few mobility constraints imposed on married women allow them to venture beyond their village to earn the extra cash and this will mean working in other countries as well (Elmhirst 2000: 217). Such flexibility may explain the marital status of many Indonesian domestic helpers who work in Singapore.

Singapore, a country that pursues a path of strong export-oriented industrialization and services requires their female labour force participation and the nuclearization of families. These have led to a strong demand for domestic workers from Indonesia and Philippines in order to free working women from daily domestic and care work (Resurreccion 2009: 33). Therefore, this push and pull factor brings in workers like Joha, from East Java to Singapore. Singapore’s lucrative and stable economy with strong currency and its close geographic proximity with Indonesia also play a part in encouraging Indonesian women to work in Singapore. From the interview with Joha, Singapore is viewed as a clean (bersih), peaceful (aman) and well-mannered (tertib) place. Joha gave an affirmative ‘No’ when she was asked whether she felt any regrets coming to Singapore. In fact, Singapore is seen as a stepping stone for her bigger goals in life.

The nuclear household has been regarded as an important unit through which economic and social support is channeled, although its boundaries are often stretched to include grandparents (Mantra 2000). Despite thousand of miles away from home, Joha continues performing her filial obligations towards her old parents, especially when her son is being taken care of by them when her husband goes out to work. She is not unique. Valerie J. Hull (1996) did mention that when women were asked on the survey whether or not they agreed with the statement “if a woman with young children has a job, she cannot take care of her children well”, the majority of women in all social classes agreed. In Joha’s case, her situation is much more complicated because she can only make calls to them. Therefore, there is a need for Joha to remit enough money to her family so as to compensate her absence and inability to fulfill her domestic works. If she fails to do that, there may be repercussions as illustrated by Bernadette P. Resurreccion (2009) where migrant women had severed ties with family members in the provinces due to their inability to remit earnings for children they had left in the care of the elderly parents and relatives. Therefore, money is essential to show that they do not forget their duty as a daughter, wife and mother although they may be absent for a long time. (they use money to compensate for their absent. They are left with little option but to turn their love into a commodity) Also, by maintaining their own families back home, these female migrants are able to return without being disfavoured should something happen to their employment such as during the 1997 Asian crisis where a lot of jobs were lost.

Joha’s remitted money does not benefit her family alone. Remittances actually affect positively, among other things:

1)The volume of money circulating in the village origin.

2)A more even distribution of income within the community.

3)A decrease of population pressure on agricultural land.

4)An improvement in households’ welfare.

(Mantra 2000: 189)

Therefore, as long as money is remitted regularly, the female migrants can be assured that she will be well-accepted by her community once she has decided to stop working abroad and returns home (I would like to see a little bit more how she reflected her guilt and pain as a result of living apart from her children, how she managed to “mother from afar” and what her “nurturing alternatives” are).

Conclusion

The Javanese men do not view their women as ignorant or incompetent due to the latter’s economic and domestic contributions to the household. In fact, Javanese women are regarded to be more resourceful and clever than men (Hull 1996: 79). However, beyond their respective household sphere, women are viewed as a group who only deserves to work in the entertainment and care sectors, feminized works. In fact, as written by a government-sponsored Family Welfare Education program, there are five major roles of a woman.

1)Producer of the nation’s future generations.

2)Wife and faithful companion to her husband.

3)Mother and educator of her children.

4)Manager of the household.

5)Citizen.

(Hull 1996: 95)

The above-mentioned roles reinforce women’s ultimate place in Java. Such description of an ideal woman justifies the allocation of women to menial jobs as compared to a higher earning pay or managerial jobs offered to men. However, it is necessary to mention that the ideals are not unique to Java alone. There are other provinces in Indonesia and other Southeast Asia countries that adopt similar ideals to their women. Hence, it explains the presence of female domestic helpers, rather than male helpers in Singapore. Nevertheless, although female migrants are forced to leave their family for money, I believe they do have their fair share of enjoyment working in Singapore.

References

Books

Esterik, Penny Van. 1996. Introduction. In: Esterik. P. V. ed. Women of Southeast Asia. Illinois: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.

Hull, Valerie L. 1996. Women In Java’s Rural Middle Class: Progress or Regress. In: Esterik. P. V. ed. Women of Southeast Asia. Illinois: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.

Neher, Clark D. 1996. Sex Roles in the Philippines: The Ambiguous Cebuana. In: Esterik. P. V. ed. Women of Southeast Asia. Illinois: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.

Resurreccion, Bernadette P. 2009. Gender Trends in Migration and Employment in Southeast Asia. In: Devasahayam, Theresa W. Gender Trends in Southeast Asia: Women Now, Women In the Future. Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Elmhirst, Becky. 2000. Negotiating Gender, Kinship and Livelihood Practices in an Indonesian Transmigration Area. In: Koning, J., Nolten J. R. and Saptari, R. ed. Women and Households in Indonesia: Cultural Notions and Social Practices. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.

Mantra, Ida Bagoes. 2000. Focus on Nonpermanent Migrations. In: Rotge, Vincent L., Mantra I. B. and Rijanta R. ed. Rural-Urban Integration in Java: Consequences for regional and development and employment. England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Basic Readings

Helliwell, Christine. _Women in Asia‘ In: Evans, pp. 260–286.

Anger Management (Emotion Control and Display)

2009-07-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sociology of Emotion

Professor Kang commented that I could have discussed more on the influence of power in emotion control and display.

I got an A- for this research paper.

ANGER MANAGEMENT
(EMOTION CONTROL AND DISPLAY)
Nur Rashidah Bte Amren

Words Count: 3,158

Literature Review

Defining emotion is challenging in the sense that people tend to look at it in different lenses. However, among all the theories put forward, two actually managed to garner a lot of defenders. As brought forward by Thoit’s elements of emotion, there are social, cultural and biological dimensions of emotion (Turner, 2007). One, which I will place it under the social and cultural dimensions, is that emotions are intentional states in which they are directed at something (Deigh, 2008). I shall use sadness as an example. A person is sad because his mind is directed at a sad event such as the death of his mother. He knows that the loss of his mother will make him feel lonely in the future and the joy they shared together in the past will be left as memory. His sadness is directed at his dead mother, the thoughts about the past and his future. Thus, sadness is intentional unlike the experience of giddiness, state of mind that can occur undirected at anything (Deigh, 2008). A strong absolute proponent for social and cultural dimensions of emotion can be found in the theory of the Greek and Roman Stoics in which they maintained that emotions were judgments. Hence, animals and infants, according to them, were incapable of emotions because they could neither formulate propositions nor promote or reject the propositions (Deigh, 2008).

The second one is the notion on primitive emotions. A prominent advocator for the biological dimension of emotion is Charles Darwin. Expression of emotion in human beings and animals are said to be voluntary at first, soon became habitual and at last hereditary (Calhoun and Solomon, 1984). Darwin gave the example of hair standing Man experiences when he is frightened. Today, such action is similar to that of dogs and cats whose erected fur will make them look larger and fierce and hence, deter the predators from attacking them (Deigh, 2008). Although the purpose is lost over the centuries, human beings inherited such traits from their ape ancestors. Hence, the defenders of such theory see emotions as something evolving and innate in human beings.

However, Darwin himself recognized the cultural and social aspects of emotions. He maintained the need to separate involuntary expressions from conventional expressions (Deigh, 2008). For example, when an Asian boy is angry, he is taught to keep quiet. He is encouraged to keep his unhappiness to himself. However, for the Americans, for example, they are told to express themselves freely, including showing their anger by throwing vulgarities or making negative hand signs in public. Based on personal experiences, the usage of vulgarities in public can be heard more in the Western countries than those countries in Asia. These are conventional expressions. Involuntary expressions will be those that involve musculature of the human face. They are instinctive. Using the same example above, both Asians and Americans will unintentionally move the same part of their facial muscles when they get angry such as squinting the eyes.

In this research paper, I will be leaning towards the social aspect of emotions because I believe that it is the social factor that determines, to a larger extent, how human beings manage their emotions. I am not rejecting Darwin’s proposal on the biological dimension of emotions. In fact, I am for the fact that human beings do need Emotion (biologically programmed into human beings) in order to be able to experience emotions. However, as I mentioned above, the impact generated by the social rules on controlling and displaying emotions in social interaction is far greater than biology. The emotion which I am focusing on is anger. Despite many disputes on what counts as primary emotion, everyone agrees that anger is an emotion that everyone feels. It is because, anger is important in ensuring the survival of human beings as well as the formation and the maintenance of a stable society.

On the first part of the paper, I will be examining anger management in social interactions and apply Goffman’s dramaturgical approach in understanding how anger is displayed and controlled in public. Personally, I feel that in order to manage our anger well publicly, one needs to understand both the display and the feeling rules as brought forward by Hochschild. It is because in this world, talk and action are the front line elements of daily social encounters and behind this front line are the supply lines of attitudes and feelings about oneself and others (Gahagan, 1984). Hence, the emphasis in knowing both rules to succeed in daily social interactions. In this section, I will divide it into two parts. The first one deals with the management of anger in order to avoid social condemnation such as how one hides his or her anger. The second will illustrate how social and cultural norms are broken and ways to mend the mismanagement of anger. Next, I will discuss on the second aspect of the social dimensions of anger which takes into consideration social structure and power. Here, I will be utilizing Foucault’s theory which states that everyone has power in one way or another and hence, the authority I exercise over my nephews and younger siblings which allows me to express anger differently as I would in public.

Case 1
Recently, I went to Malacca with my family for a holiday. My aunty was our host and we stayed with her during our one week long vacation in Malaysia. We were not the only family since many of my uncles’ and aunties’ own family joined us. During our stay, I observed how my mother was treated like a domestic helper. She was asked to cook and prepare meals for all of us, including my cousins. While everyone was enjoying themselves, my mother needed to stay put in the kitchen and took orders from everyone. I was angry and hence, to lessen my mother’s burden, I volunteered to help her serve my cousins, uncles and aunties as well as their friends. At that moment, the anger was still manageable. I could only grit my teeth when I saw the rest laughing while eating the food on the table. How could they forget about me and my mother?

In any face to face interaction, information about the individual is conveyed through expressive messages ‘given’ and ‘given off’. While the former is intentional, the latter is usually unintentional and can be seen from his or her body language, tone and facial expressions. Nevertheless, a person does have the capacity to control their own expressions ‘given’ and ‘given off’ (Smith, 2006). The evident is clear, such as when the audience is conned into believing that the person is experiencing a certain emotion. The actor then has the upper hand of the game and can easily manipulate the audience for the actor’s own benefits. In Case 1, although I was angry, I managed myself to smile at the persons I was serving to. I could have shown my anger towards my host aunty for treating my mother badly but I choose not to because to win the game, I must be able to play with my expressions ‘given’ and ‘given off’. I wanted to visit A Famosa Water World and my host aunty has offered to bear all the expanses. Should I show tantrum, I would definitely be penalized and she might not want to bring me out for holiday. Worst still, I might be labeled as rude and ungrateful child, someone who forgot how to respect her elderly. If that happened, I would lose face. Since feelings attached to faces (the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular social contact) are determined by group rules and the current definition of situation, I needed to follow the rules (Smith, 2006). I wanted the monetary benefits she offered and hence, to win the game, I needed to manipulate my body language so as to show that I am pleased to do the housework. Thus, anger is managed so that I could gain something (a treat to A Famosa Water World) in return as well as for the sake of saving my mother’s and my own face.

However, such efforts are impossible should I am ignorant about the feeling and display rules. For example, as a Malay girl, I know that hospitality towards family and friends is important. Hence, serving others is highly valued and according to the Malay’s feeling rules, the person who serves should feel happy and obligated to do so. Although in this case, the practice of hospitality was inappropriate, in the sense that they knew that my mother was ailing and there were other younger girls in the chalet to help out in the kitchen, showing dissatisfaction and anger openly would have negative consequences on me. Thus, I need to plant a smile in accordance to the display rule. These two types of social norms are learned through my socialization as a Malay girl.

Case 2
There are two buses’ services at the Singapore Custom, 160 and 170. Bus 160 will bring its passengers to Jurong East Interchange and will take the same route as Bus 170 for few stops before going in separate directions. Hence, a lot of people regardless of where they want to go will take either bus 160 or 170 depending on which one comes first. On that day, I was carrying a huge traveler bag on my back and both of my hands were occupied, carrying huge luggage on both sides of my hands. I was waiting for Bus 160 at its lane to take me and my friends to Jurong East Interchange. Bus 170 arrived and we wanted to board the bus since it came first but we could not do so. The family standing on the front did not move and with our huge luggage, it was impossible for us to cut their queue to board Bus 170. The persons behind us grumbled a lot because they also wanted to take Bus 170 but could not since they could not pass us. 45 minutes passed by there was no sign of Bus 160 although eight buses numbered 170 came and went. We, including the rest of the persons behind us were trapped at that lane. I could sense anger and impatience in everyone in that line, especially those who wished to cut queue to take Bus 170. Suddenly, a mid forties uncle shouted at me and my friends, saying that we could also take Bus 170, alight at Kranji Station and board Bus 160 to Jurong East. From the way he spoke, he might be assuming that we had not idea about such route and it was our fault for the long queue at Bus 160 lane. My male friend who was extremely exhausted started to shout back at him for yelling at us as if it was our fault. Verbal abuses war started between my friend and that uncle and a Cisco officer needed to intervene to stop the argument. My other friend explained our situation to that officer and surprisingly, the heated argument almost ended abruptly with the arrival of that officer. Both my friend and that uncle apologized to one another and we resumed our journey.

We are told that we can and should control our expression of emotions. However, we are seldom told that actually, we can even control their actual occurrences (Gahagan, 1984). Self-management techniques, as proposed by social psychologists, allow a person to control and sometimes totally avoid getting unwanted emotions. In this case, upon hearing the uncle’s yelling, I knew that I would get very angry and I did not like the feeling on getting angry when I was extremely exhausted after a long journey. Hence, I took a deep breath and calm myself by remembering God. However, when anger could no longer be controlled, as happened to my friend, social and cultural norms were broken. Once these norms are broken, a series of mismanagement practices needs to be done so that peace and normal societal order can be restored.

Impression management is a dramaturgical concept which highlights the way in which persons in the company of others strive to present an image of themselves in particular ways (Scott and Marshall, 2005). Hence, as mentioned above, once scenes are created, corrective practices need to be done to maintain equilibrium. There are various types of scenes, and the one that we were in at Singapore Custom fell under the scene where the interaction between two persons goes out of hand that others are forced to become witness or to take side (Goffman, 1959). Upon realizing the chaos my friend has done and the fact that he was about to lose his face for being seen by others as an immature youth, he needed to perform corrective practices to save his face. Information was provided (my friend said that it was not our fault since the family in front of us did not move from their position and that he was too exhausted from the travel that a shout from the uncle triggered him off unintentionally) to show that the actor was under the influence of something, in this case; exhaustiveness, and he was not acting as himself (Goffman, 1967). Also, as a supplement to redefining the unacceptable act of yelling and exchanging verbal abuses publicly, my friend can also provide punishment or penance for himself. For example, other than apologizing to the uncle at the end of the dispute, he could also apologize to the rest of the passengers. This could show that he did not treat the feelings of others lightly and that the rules of conduct (not to display anger overtly in public and avoid using vulgarities among one another) which he appeared to have broken are still sacred (Goffman, 1967).

Case 3
Being the eldest sibling in the family, I am granted great deference from my younger siblings and nephews. In their eyes, I am seen as someone wise, especially since I am the only university undergraduate in the family. Hence, I can exercise a degree of authority towards them. One day, my nephew was caught drawing on my lecture notes. I was so angry that I snatched his pen away and scolded him harshly until he cried. After a while, I felt guilty. Just a few hours ago in school, my friend was happily drawing flowers and apples on my lecture notes. I was not pleased with her activity but I could only afford a smile and laughter as though I approved her doing. However, when my dear nephew did the same thing, I flared into rage. Was that fair to him? Why did I behave differently?

Power is usually involved in the structural or economics discourses. However, Foucault maintained that power should be look at how it is exercised at the precise and localized individual levels of particular institutional interfaces (Hook, 2007). Everyone has power relatively. For me, although my parents exercise authority over me by determining what I should or should not do, I do have a certain degree of authority over my younger siblings and nephews. This shows that power is not something that is owned or innate in a person. It works both way in the sense that when I am exercising power, my siblings and nephews need to acknowledge the power and authority that I am exerting over them. Furthermore, apart from being the eldest in the family, I am the only one who enters university and hence, is seen as someone knowledgeable. As it goes, knowledge comes with power. Foucault recognized the importance of knowledge in generating deference from people as the actor exercises his power. When a person has a power, according to Hochschild, he or she has more freedom to deviate from the feeling and display rules imposed by the society (Hochschild, 1983/2003).

According to the conventional rule, one should not practice double standard (theft should be a wrongdoing to both Singaporean and non-Singaporean). Another social rule is that an adult should be gentle in dealing with a young child who may not know what is right or wrong. In Case 3, I have broken both rules. I showed anger to my nephew for drawing on my lecture notes despite doing nothing when my friend did the same thing to me earlier that day in the lecture theatre. It was only made possible because I have a degree of power over my nephew and hence, I could scold him to express my dissatisfaction. I could not do the same thing towards my friend because if I did show my unhappiness to her, I could be negatively sanctioned by my other friends because conventionally, one should always be courteous to one’s friend and practice tolerance. Any disagreement should be solved diplomatically. Since, my friend and I are egalitarian in terms of power structure, I need to practice face work and adhere to the feeling and the display rules. In addition, should the child is not my nephew but other person’s child; I cannot show my anger to him or her. Rather, I will need to portray gentleness in correcting their child’s wrongdoings because I have no authority over the child.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our emotions are guided largely by society. Society imposes certain feeling and display rules and we, as members of a society should adhere to the rules in order to ensure that our society functions well. Emotions can act as glues but they can also segregate a society. Anger is a good example in which a mismanagement of anger can cause family, friends and the society as a whole to break apart. In the first case, I illustrated how our expressions that are ‘given’ or ‘given off’ can be manipulated to our own advantage. Handling an emotion well is only made possible if we know the display and feeling rules. If a person does not know the rules involved in playing rugby, how can that person plays rugby without being sent off the field? In the second case, I demonstrated how we can not only control our emotion but also prevent an emotion from occurring. Knowing that being angry in a tired state is unfavorable to me, I stopped myself from getting angry by taking a deep breath when an uncle came and scolded us. When social and cultural norms are broken due to the inability to suppress anger, corrective measures need to be taken to save one’s face. Lastly, I mentioned how power and structure can alter the need for a person to follow the conventional feeling and display rules. The more power you have, the more leeway you get should you breach the norms. Thus, although human beings are biologically programmed into having the ability to have emotions, it is the social and cultural dimensions of emotion that really play a part in our daily social interactions.

References
Books
Deigh, John. 2008. Emotions, Values and the Law. Madison Avenue, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Gahagan, Judy. 1984. Social Interaction and its Management. New Fetter Lane, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction Ritual, Essays on Face-To-Face Behavior. New York: Anchor Books.
Hook, Derek. 2007. Foucault, Psychology and the Analytics of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marshall, G. And Scott, J. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Smith, Greg. 2006. Erving Goffman. Madison Avenue, New York: Routledge.

Readings
Darwin, Charles (1872/1984) Excerpt from The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals in Calhoun and Solomon (1984)
Goffman, Erving. 1959. ‘The arts of impression management.’ In his The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York: Anchor Books, pp. 208-237.
Hochschild (1983/2003) Chapter 8, Gender, Status, and Feeling in the Managed Heart.
Turner (2007), Chapter 2. “Why did humans become so emotional?”

Social Psychology Film Review: Das Experiment

2009-07-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

I wrote a review on Das Experiment and incorporated what I have learned in Social Psychology into my analysis. In other words, this write up is mainly from a sociological perspective.

I got a B for this film review.

Das Experiment

The grim and solitary nature of a prison is proven to have power of its own. Once it is constructed, it becomes independent and coercive towards the occupants, both the inmates and the guards. It is a symbol of power and sets as a reminder to everyone of the consequences should anyone breaks a law or challenges an authority. By setting up a 'real' prison at the basement of a university in Das Experiment, the volunteers are exposed to a situation where they can readily internalize the roles of prisoners and guards. The guards turn sadistic and powerful in the experiment due to the constraint they could impose upon the inmates, with the availability of a gas pistol owned by Eckert and batons as weapons as well as having a complete access of the surveillance facilities towards the end of the experiment. In addition, the ever existing absolute power hierarchy in the prison between the inmates (as subordinates) and the guards (as super ordinates) allows the guards to exercise physical abuse with no restraint. Symbolic mobilization also comes into play with the guards and inmates wearing their respective uniforms. Equipped with all these accessories, the volunteers who are assigned guard role are able to play their authoritarian roles extremely well. Resources provide the basis of a group's power over others (Sandstrom et al. 2005: 140).

Professor Thon offers 4000 marks to anyone who is willing to be a volunteer for his experiment. Since he has the monetary power, he is able to induce people into abiding his instructions and rules (Sandstrom et al. 2005). For example, before the guards assume their roles, Professor Thon says to the guards that they should play their roles dutifully in order to secure the monetary rewards. Professor Thon gains respect from these guards and when troubles arise, they choose to consult Professor Thon over Dr Grim for direction. Another factor that contributes to Professor Thon being regarded highly by the guards as compared to Dr Grim is that the former is a male. In this patriarchy world, people choose to see and respect man as someone who is more decisive and powerful to woman. This can be seen in a scene in which she is ignored when she approaches Berus to tell him that if he continues to physically abuse the inmates, he will be disqualified. The incident happens even though Dr Grim has actually higher authority than Berus in the experiment. Such scene may not happen should Dr Grim is a man. Hence, due to the uneven distribution of power between man and woman, the guards refuse to follow Dr Grim's order of suspending the experiment as they see themselves as superior than Dr Grim and choose to resume performing their role as abusive guards.

Tarek Fahd is a journalist. He volunteers himself to get the monetary rewards as well as to be able to write a ground breaking story for the paper his is working with. Tarek, who is also known as 77, wants to write a compelling story and hence, becomes a trouble maker and challenges the guards. In one scene, Tarek purposely wants to make Berus angry. By putting himself in Berus's shoes, he knows that speaking overtly about Berus's bad body odour will agitate Berus. This is role-taking where Tarek makes a prediction about Berus getting angry should he comments openly on Berus's body odour (Sandstrom et al. 2005). Hence, he aligns his performance to be a trouble-maker and a daring inmate towards Berus so that he can accomplish his personal goal of ridiculing and angering Berus. Instead of being a 'normal' prisoner who is subordinated to the guards, Tarek purposely modifies the role of the prisoner he wants to be (Sandstrom et al. 2005). Berus is very angry with Tarek for ridiculing his body odour and is seen gripping the baton. Tarek sees Berus's angry reaction. However, knowing that this is an experiment and thinking that Berus can never hit him with the baton, Tarek further challenges Berus. Tarek knows that injuring the inmates during the experiment is wrong and if Berus physically abuses him, Berus will be penalized. This is again role-taking. Therefore, Tarek continues with his daring performance and dares Berus to hit him (role-making). Such action makes him a hero in the eyes of the other inmates but a sore in the eyes of the guards.

The continuous instable relationship between the guards and the inmates amount to the use of aggression by the former. In a scene where Tarek cages two guards and the whole inmates making noises beyond the control of the guards, the guards resort to the use of force. However, before they proceed to the cells, the guards assure the other guards (including Bosch) who question the use of such force, saying that they are only establishing order in the prison even though the actions may be improper. This is an example of a disclaimer (Sandstrom et al. 2005). The lights are switched off and the guards spray fire extinguishers at the inmates. The inmates are told to strip off their clothes and sleep naked. When Professor Thon asks the guards why they do such things, they say that they need to go to such an extent in order to maintain order in the prison. Here, the guards justify their action and do not want Professor Thon to see their acts as deviant or improper. They are also defining the situation in which they see the prisoners are acting inappropriately (disobeying the guards' instructions) and hence, the need to use additional coercion to maintain order and to let the inmates know who is in-charge. In fact, Eckert, one of the guards, implies during the interview that it should not a big issue since none of the inmates gets hurt. In this case where excuses and some technique of neutralization are involved, Eckert acknowledges that what the guards have done is wrong but denies responsibility of it since injury has not be caused and the action is done for higher purpose (Sandstrom et al. 2005).

Tarek, upon getting abuse from the guards, tends to resort to role distancing. He will think about Dora, a girl whom he has a sexual relationship with, in order to forget temporarily his role as a prisoner. However, when he is not dreaming of Dora, he actually embraces the role of a prisoner who has no power and authority towards the guards. The role embracement is to an extreme extent that one night, Tarek wakes up feeling breathless and Steinhoff, his cellmate, recognizing it as panic attack, comes to his rescue (Sandstrom et al. 2005). Similarly, some of the inmates develop trauma and become withdrawn. Two inmates are even hospitalized.

As discussed in class, there are four processes of constructing deviance. The first one is banning. It involves moral entrepreneurs and rule enforcers. In this film, I see Berus as the moral entrepreneur. When the inmates get out-of-hand and defy the authority exercised by the guards, Berus tells his group that they can get the respect they deserve by practicing humiliation towards the inmates. Soon, Berus becomes the leader of the group and whatever he says matter. The rest of the guards become the rule enforcers, who continuously humiliate and resort to violence in order to command respect from the inmates and to ensure that the rules are abided by. The deviant is seen as someone who refuses to listen to the guards' order. The second process is detecting. Disobeying an order is readily observable and it is made more obvious by the physical design of the prison in which the inmates are constantly in full view, the presence of surveillance camera and the deployment of guards to monitor the cells. The third process is called attribution. The guards may see the inmates' refusal to adhere to the rules as a sign of power struggle. The inmates purposely challenge the guards in order to show that the inmates are the ones in-charge and the guards have no power to use physical force against them since it is only an experiment. Hence, the guards' pride is at stake since the master status of a prison guard as someone powerful in prison is underplayed by a group of people who is usually stigmatized or socially devalued in public. This explains the use of coercive means by them to get the inmates' respect. Lastly, the process of constructing deviance involves reacting. The guards are compelled to react to deviant act of prisoners because it threatens the order in the prison. Furthermore, their rule-reinforcements will be seen by Professor Thon as something credible and hence will be rewarded more. They also think that the deviant prisoners have failed to learn from their previous experiences. These processes have profound effects on the inmates objectively and subjectively. For example, the inmates receive physical abuse from the guards as well as becoming more frighten at the sight of a guard that some of the inmates develop psychological trauma and wanting to withdraw from the experiment (Sandstrom et al. 2005).

In conclusion, the prison setting has indeed becomes independent with its own rules and order. In it, it gives the prison guards absolute authority over the inmates. Due to the solitary and grim outlook of the prison allow both groups to assimilate their roles quickly. The trouble-maker, Tarek, who does not conform to the conventional prison order where the inmates should adhere to the rules and orders mete out by the guards is singled out and is exposed to various torture. Once the prison order is being continuously jeopardized, the guards become less hesitant to use violence against all the inmates who are socially devalued.

References

Readings
Sandstrom, Kent, Daniel Martin, and Gary Alan Fine. 2005. “Role taking, role making, and the coordination of action.” Pp. 125‐147 in Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
Sandstrom, Kent, Daniel Martin, and Gary Alan Fine. 2005. “The Politics of Social Reality: Constructing and Negotiating Deviance.” Pp. 151‐177 in Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
Film
Das Experiment by Oliver Hirschbiegel

Sociology of Organization, Barisan Nasional

2009-07-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of my research paper with the first one being the proposal paper.

One of the comments I received from Professor Tan - to improve in my referencing.

I got an A- for this paper.

HS205: Organization and Organizational Change
Barisan Nasional
Nur Rashidah Binte Amren

Introduction

Recently, newspapers have been covering issues on various politicians in different countries struggling and competing with each other for power. It seems that power is the only thing that matter to these people. The question is; what is power? Generally, people will define power as the ability to control others. Sociologically, there are deeper meanings and different approaches to understand power. Hence, I will be discussing the sociological concept of power (Topic Two: Power and Hierarchy) and use Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition in Malaysia as my subject of analysis.

Multi-Dimensional Power – Structural Power

BN is composed of three race-based parties namely United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). Each party represents the interests of its people and ideally, all the parties have equal power in the parliament. As compared to the opposition parties, BN acquired many votes during its early years because the people favoured a united multi-racial and communal party over a single racial party. However, over the years, the Malays dominate in the decision-making processes (Weiss, 2006). The incorporation of MCA and MIC become symbolic and its main purpose is to use them to get the minorities' supports and votes during elections. Until recently, such arrangements go unchallenged. However, after the 2008 General Election, people's unhappiness and anger towards BN are expressed more openly and aggressively.

Usually, power is seen as a relationship between a subordinate and a superior only, such as between a janitor and his supervisor. Sociologically, there are multi-dimensional power namely, hierarchical power and structural power. The effect imposed by the latter is usually more subtle than the former. One of the reasons why the minorities do not go against BN for years, especially during Tun Dr. Mahathir's regime, is because they are made to think that their representative parties have equal or at least some degree of power in BN. Since, UMNO, MCA and MIC are BN parties; they are supposed to have equal status. However, although these parties are not stratified hierarchically and thus, devoid of hierarchical power (which can be detected more readily by the public), structural power still come into play. Structural power arises due to the division of labour. UMNO, which represents the majority usually have a final say in the parliament since they are – after all – is representing the Malays and the indigenous majority. Power is exercised indirectly so as to maintain the ideology that BN parties are treated equally. For example, MCA is allowed to introduce new leaders to the masses to win elections. The voters might then think that MCA is exercising the same political freedom as UMNO’s in determining its future and happy that BN keeps its words of equity regardless of race. However, little do they know that UMNO still does screen the potential candidates so as to avoid permitting assertive leaders in UMNO’s coalition partner who dare to challenge the existing structural power in BN (Vasil, 1971; Weiss, 2006).

When anger is bottled up, it will explode sooner or later. Although the practice of power structurally in BN is not as obvious as should BN practices hierarchical power, people can still sense the discrimination. The only difference is that protests from the minorities would have happened much earlier with hierarchical power. Structural power, on the other hand, enables UMNO to engage in power secretly and hides, to a certain extent, the discriminatory practices that are happening in the parliament (Kanter, 1979). Thus, the minorities will start protesting only when too much worms come spilling out of the can.

Major Types of Power

Malaysia was led for 22 years by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his term as Malaysia's Prime Minister. He is regarded as “a man who wanted and is willing to influence events rather than to be a circumstantial reactor” (Ho, 2001: 1). Tun Mahathir's administration saw a transformation in the Prime Minister's office where power was being centralized in there. A term was coined to describe it – Ministerial Supremacy. Being the prime minister then, Tun Mahathir had power concentrated in his hand. His administration allowed cronyism where Malay corporations were favoured over other racial groups' corporations. Privatisation projects were based on political ties and nepotism rather than via open tender. When Anwar Ibrahim, his once loyal supporter, started to criticize his administration, he laid Anwar off as his Deputy Prime Minister and even accused him of performing sodomy. Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in 1998. Although people has began to speculate about Tun Mahathir abusing power during his long-tenure as Malaysia Prime Minister, the speculation got worse only after he stepped down from his post as the longest serving Malaysia Prime Minister.

Recently, he is also known not to be in good term with his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi who is seen as someone too passive and incapable of heading BN and Malaysia. Tun Mahathir's personal attacks on Abdullah cause some discomfort in a few prominent figures in the parliament, notably, the International Trade and Industry Minister, Rafidah Aziz. For Rafidah, she worries that Mahathir's attacks would eventually lead to his own destruction. Any wrong moves by Tun Mahathir could cause all his past misdeeds to be exposed such as abusing the power he had (for example, creating instant millionaires and maligning others for his own benefits) when he was the Prime Minister (Sani, 2008).

Other than the common notion about power which tend to relate it to something coercive and legitimate, sociologically, there are various major types of power. These are reward power, the ability to reward others; coercive power, the ability to mete out punishments to offenders; legitimate power, power situated in a particular position; referent power, being identified with by people and expert power, the ability to use power against the people who need a person's expertise. By understanding different types of power a person can exercise, we can evaluate how strong Tun Mahathir was. By awarding contracts worth millions of ringgits to his social networks (reward power), manipulating facts so as to have an enemy convicted of sodomy (coercive power), ruling Malaysia as its prime minister for 22 years (legitimate power), having people idolizing him and having thousands of fans in Facebook (referent power) and knowing how to lead Malaysia to a more prosperous road by creating many effective national policies (expert power) make Tun Mahathir an almost formidable figure. He has all the power and by acknowledging this, we can understand why Tun Mahathir managed to run Malaysia effectively. A person who has only one of the above stated powers is definitely a no match to a person who has all major types of power, like Tun Mahathir.

As for the consequences, Tun Mahathir received an utmost respect from his people because they realized how powerful Tun Mahathir was. With a pragmatic and powerful leader at the realm, Malaysians could be assured that they were in good hands and hence, did not interfere much in the political section. As the result, Tun Mahathir could further exercise his power unchallenged to lead Malaysia forward.

Powerlessness

New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in the 1970s. Its aims are to firstly, reduce in both urban and rural poverty for all Malaysians regardless of race. Secondly, it is to reduce racial economic imbalances in terms of income, employment and wealth (Faaland, Parkinson and Saniman, 1990). When NEP was first introduced, the Malays were economically backward as compared to other racial groups. Among the two main aims of NEP, it is the latter that stirs unhappiness among the Malaysians, particularly the minorities. Malays are given priority to governmental job employments and given various subsidies to increase the standard of living of the Malays. It is even enacted in the law not to question the so-called sensitive issues in parliament such as the Malays rights, Islam and anything that has to do with Malay's special treatments.

Normally, people associate the idea of powerlessness with being submissive and passive. However, sociological concept on powerlessness will prove otherwise. Those who perceive themselves as powerless are the ones who tend to use more punishing and coercive forms of influence (Kanter, 1979) upon others. The Malays, who were economically powerless, did not resign their poverty to fate nor did they ask for sympathy from others to improve their financial situation. In fact, since they form the majority, they use their numbers and their position as the bumiputras (sons of the soils) to enact rules which are indirectly coercive in order to improve and maintain their economic and political positions in Malaysia. It is coercive in a sense that the minorities (the Chinese and the Indians) are not given equal rights or status in various public policies. Sociologically, we can understand why the Malays act and defend aggressively about their rights. In fact, there was uproar from the Malay community when the new Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced his plan to abolish NEP. Historically, the Malays were weak and powerless. The introduction on NEP has assured them that their Malay rights are being preserved. Although there are many Malays who live in the rural areas who do not enjoy such benefits, the psychological effect which NEP brings to the Malays make it essential for NEP to be retained.

Law of Political Entropy

UMNO division chief Datuk Ahmad Ismail who made an irresponsible remark during the Permatang Pauh by-election speech had stirred severe unhappiness among the Chinese community. He questioned whether the Chinese should deserve equal rights from Malaysia since they are squatters. He was eventually suspended from UMNO but he did not show any sign of being remorseful. Gerakan (an UMNO ally) president Kok Tsu Koon called Datuk Ahmad's action as making their efforts to counteract negative images of BN portrayed by the opposition parties useless. Since citizens have started questioning BN's credibility, it is obviously silly to make such careless remarks which could further deteriorate the situation.

The irrational act of Datuk Ahmad is weird to some people. In sociology, there is a term to explain why he is behaving that way – Law of Political Entropy. Datuk Ahmad was desperate to gain power in that election and in his eagerness to win the Permatang Pauh by-election, he put away rationality. His aim was to win the election and nothing else matters. Hence, when he was interviewed on 10 September 2008 on his remark, he did not feel even a slightest degree of regret or shame because when politics is introduced, rationality is hard to restore.
As the consequence, Datuk Ahmad has made himself foolish and thus, he lost respects from others due to his irrational behaviour. Secondly, irrational acts can only make matter worse and in this case, his remarks further heightened racial tensions in Malaysia.

Critical Role of Legitimacy

Power is contestable and highly sought after. Time and money are invested in order to gain it. In Malaysia, there are continuous competitions for power between Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and BN. Due to the differing views on the future of Malaysia and each party claiming to be able to represent the whole society regardless of race fairly, many rallies are held. Monies are thrown in for campaigns and time is wasted.

Sociologically, it is important for power to be converted into authority. Monies, energy and time spent on rallies could be channelled to more useful projects. This is possible if only power is placed into legitimate authority. BN, whose legitimate authority was once unquestioned, led Malaysia to a greater height since resources were not spent to fight for power. Thus, they could concentrate on building Malaysia up and when they were successful, their authority was enhanced. Thus, legitimate authority is essential in ensuring smooth and efficient running of a corporation.

However, as mentioned above, different parties now are contending for power. To gain support and to disseminate their visions and future plans for Malaysia, they hold rallies. The audiences are none other than workers. So, when these workers stop their job activities to hear the rallies, national workforce productivity will decline and this will affect Malaysia’s overall economy.

References

Books
Faaland, J. , Parkinson, J. R. & Saniman, R. (1990). Growth and Ethnic Inequality: Malaysia's New Economic Policy. 38 King Street, London: C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
Ho, K. L. & Chin, J. (2001). Mahathir's Administration: Performance and Crisis in Governance. Singapore: Times Books International.
Sani, R. A. (2008). Failed Nation? Concerns Of A Malaysian Nationalist. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre.
Weiss, M. L. (2006). Protest and Possibilities. Civil Society and Coalitions For Political Change in Malaysia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Ahmad, A. K. , Mansor, N. & Ahmad, A. S. (2003). The Malaysian Bureaucracy. Four Decades of Development. Petaling Jaya, Selangor: Prentice Hall.
Tong, C. K. (2006). 'The Chinese in Contemporary Malaysia', in Lian K. F. Ed. Race, Ethnicity and the State in Malaysia and Singapore. Lieden: Brill, pp. 95 – 119.

Newspapers
Hassan, H. (2008, September 11). UMNO Man and that 'Immigrants' Remark Suspended. The Stratis Times (Singapore), pp A3.

Newspaper Article in an Electronic Database (Lexis Nexis Academic)
Hong, C. (2008, September 4). BN's Chinese parties in dilemma; They face pressure by angry voters to reform, which may include leaving ruling coalition. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Vasudevan, V. (2008, September 3). Najib apologises for UMNO. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Kuppusamy, B. (2008, September 3). Chinese furious at Malay calling them squatters; PM urged to sack ally who asked if immigrants deserve same rights. South China Morning Post. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Kesavapany, K. (2008, September 3). Anwar: A third alternative? The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Bakar, Z. A. (2008, August 28). Hard to ignore calls for reforms. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Ng, E. & Mahmood, M. (2008, August 13). PM slams Khalid call to open UiTM to non-Bumis. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Atan, H. (2008, April 30). Nazir: Need to review NEP. New Straits Times (Malaysia). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Chow, K. H. (2008, March 14). Malay jitters over opposition plan to end NEP; Analysts suggest a more moderate stance to alleviate Malays' concerns. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Hong, C. (2008, August 31). Abdullah's Merdeka Day Pledge. The Straits Times (Singapore). Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Don't fear telling the truth, PM advises media. (2008, September 4). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 2. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
NEP vital, says UMNO Youth chief. (2008, March 14). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 6. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
What is the NEP? (2008, March 13). The Straits Times (Singapore), Asia – Malaysia. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.
Learning the hard way. (2008, March 17). New Straits Times (Malaysia), local pp 22. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from Lexis Nexis Academic Major U.S. / World Publications.

The Art of Impression Management

2009-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is not a research paper.

It is a summary of what I had presented in the tutorial.

I got an A for this summary.

The Arts of Impression Management
By Erving Goffman
Presented by Nur Rashidah Amren
On 10 February 2009

Impression management is a dramaturgical concept which highlights the way in which persons in the company of others strive to present an image of themselves in particular ways. (Scott and Marshall, 2005).

I started by explaining the three sources of embarrassment namely the unmeant gestures, inopportune intrusions as well as faux pas. Unmeant gestures involve unthinking actions and unexpected consequences. For example, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) wrote an article about National Kidney Foundation (NKF)’s over generous spending. NKF then sued SPH for allegedly defaming it but ended up getting all its ‘bad’ activities spilled out (Han, 2005). The last nine words reflect the unmeant gesture. As for inopportune intrusion, I gave an illustration on how a quiet and gentle man who is well known for his kind acts are caught off hand shouting at his maid when his friends make a surprise visit to his house. In this case, his friends’ uninformed visit is the inopportune intrusion. The man is not given time to put on the right mask. Faux pas involves unthinking, yet intentional action (as compared to unmeant gestures) and consequences that destroy one’s own image. During the World AIDS Day, Hady Mirza shared a joke titled Two Things before his third song of the night. In his joke, he gave off an implied message which said that if you are contracted with HIV or AIDS, ‘you will die lah’ (Ang and Lim, 2008). That incident caused huge uproar from the Singaporeans and his image was greatly tarnished.

After that, I moved on by defining scenes as situations in ‘which an individual acts in such a way as to destroy or seriously threaten the polite appearances of consensus. In other words, a new scene is created by such disruptions. For example, two students start fighting in a classroom. Students and tutor can no longer resume their roles as students or tutor respectively since they need to stop the fight.

There are three types of scenes. First is when teammates do not cooperate with one another and shoe their disputes openly. This can be seen in Malaysia Parliament where the Malaysian Members of Parliament (MP) fought publicly. It sends signals to the audience that Barisan Nasional (BN) is breaking down (Fuller, 2008). Another type of scene is when audience cannot play the game of polite interaction as can be seen in recent incident where George W. Bush got a big shoe thrown at him by a reporter (Tawfeeq, 2008). After what Bush has done, he might no longer command any respect from the reporter and hence the shoe throwing incident. Lastly, it is when the interaction between two people goes out of hand that others are forced to become witnesses or to take side. Recently, Yio Chu Kang MP Seng Han Thong was set ablaze by 70 years old Ong during a Community Centre (CC) ceremony. Such interaction has gone into dangerous state and Aw Chui Seng, an audience had to interfere to break that interaction. As the result, Aw Chui Seng got injured while trying to save MP Seng (Teo, 2009).

To prevent the occurrence of disruptions, both participants and non-participants need to engage themselves into various defensive and protective measures. Defensive attributes and practices include dramaturgical loyalty, discipline and circumspection.

Performers may be too emotionally attached to the audience and hence, reveal the in-group secrets or shortcomings to the audience. This is problematic and in the reading, it gives example of prostitution where the prostitutes are moved from one place to another in order to avoid getting their prostitutes falling in love with their clients. The solution to such problem is to develop high in-group solidarity and change audience periodically.

Another problem facing the performers is the need to be intellectually and emotionally involved

in the activity yet still distance himself from the activity so as to be able to avoid committing unmeant gestures. The problem requires presence of mind, self-control and management of one’s face and voice to be solved. They are all about suppressing ‘true’ emotions. For example, imagine that during one segment of your concert where you need the audience to clap their hand, the audience remains unresponsive. You will feel disappointed because you may think that the audience is bored and not fully entertained by you performance. However, the show must go on and you know that you should not reveal your disappointment to the audience. Hence, you will need dramaturgical discipline.

Dramaturgical circumspection involves preparing in advance the likely contingencies and to exploit opportunities. To do so, (1) discretion in choosing members, (2) selection of the kind of audience that will give minimum trouble, (3) limiting the size of both teams, (4) adapting his performance to the information conditions under which it must be stages, (5) adjusting his presentation according to the character of the props, (6) rehearsing routines so as to familiarize oneself with the performance so as to be able to predict the kind of contingencies that may arise, are essential.

Defensive practices can be redundant since accidents can still happen despite various precautious measures taken. In order to make sure that everything goes smoothly, tact from the audience is needed as well as tact with regards to tact. Going back to Hady Mirza’s faux pas, tact from the audience could be seen when the audience managed a faint laugh or weak clap after the insensitive jokes. However, if Hady Mirza remained unaware to the hints given by the audience, such tact would not make the situation better. This explains the need for tact with regards to tact. Hence, if the performer is to misrepresent the facts, he must do so in accordance with the etiquette for misrepresentations.

A question raised in class is that if there are ‘selves’ to be performed in various situations, what then is the ‘sacred’ self? In my perspective, there is no sacred self because even if you are alone, whatever that is going on in your mind is social. There is an internalized ‘Others’ in us. Even at home, when you are supposedly to be in the most unguarded and relax situation, you are still actually playing a role as a daughter, sister and student (when you are studying alone in your room). Thus, the idea about backstage is a mental construct because a backstage or a front stage can be everywhere and you do put on mask anywhere you go.

References:
Marshall, G. And Scott, J. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Teo, Xuanwei. 2009. “MP Seng Han Thong 'progressing well'.” Today, January 24. Retrieved February 16, 2009 (http://www.todayonline.com/articles/298570.asp#)
Ang, Benson and Lim, Germaine. 2008. “Hady learns the hard way”. The New Paper, December 7. Retrieved 16, 2009 (http://www.divaasia.com/article/1060)
Tawfeeq, Mohammed. 2008. “Bush shoe thrower trial delayed”. CNN, December 30. Retrieved 16,2009 (http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/iraq.shoe.thrower/index.html)
Fuller, Thomas. 2008. “Malaysia leader ends parliament, setting stage for bitter contest”. The New York Times, February 14. Retrieved February 16, 2009 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/world/asia/14malay.html)
Han, Bernice. 2005. “Singapore found short on charity”. The Standard, December 22. Retrieved 16, 2009 (http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=8397&sid=5999052&con_type=1&d_str=20051222)

Classical Sociology; Karl Marx

2009-07-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

The challenge:

Initially, I had difficulty grasping Marx's conception of human nature.

I referred to quite a number of books before I could understand his work.

I got a B+ for this paper.

In what ways is Marx's conception of human nature crucial to his discussion of alienated labour in capitalist society?

Introduction

Today, we can see how the majority of people consider working as a means to an end. They work for subsistence and though the present working state is not as severe as compared to Marx's period, some of the workers cannot afford to buy things which they produce or are selling. I shall use a factory worker who makes metal parts for an aeroplane as an example. In order to cut cost, an airline company may hire small companies to make certain parts for its aeroplane. A factory worker who earns $1,000 per month, before Central Provident Fund (CPF) deduction, may work from 8 am to 6 pm for years and does the same work for the same company. His mundane job is to drill holes into big cylinders. In Singapore context, $1,000 is barely enough to support one's family and he can forget about going for an overseas holiday with his family. He produces important components of an aeroplane everyday in his life but he never sits in an aeroplane for even a minute! Not only is his product is being robbed away from him, but he is also suppressing his creativity by doing a routinized and mindless job everyday – with a pathetic pay check – for subsistence!

The above situation is exactly what bothers Karl Marx. According to Adam Smith, a laissez-faire capitalism would lead to a 'system of perfect liberty'. In other words, it would be a win-win situation for the capitalists and the workers. Everyone has the chance to enter marketplace as a competitor and wealth generated could be used for the general well-being of a society. While Marx agreed with Smith that government plays an important role in ensuring rights to private property, Marx pointed out that instead of achieving a 'system of perfect liberty', alienation of labours would occur instead. Capitalism acts as a barrier to the workers and prevents them from fulfilling their needs as human beings as it inhibits them from engaging in creative and useful activities (Edles & Appelrouth, 2005).

Human Nature

Marx regarded human as innately an altruistic being. It is capitalism that makes human selfish. Hence, the current state of a human cannot be chosen because although “men make their own history ... they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past” (Marx, 1852). Here, a person is borned into a class, either proletariat or bourgeoisie class which guides their personal characteristics – altruistic and subordinating or selfish and dominating. In return, these characteristics determine a person's consciousness. The way a proletariat perceives reality differs from a bourgeoisie's. As Marx noted, “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness”. The notion of interest is no longer a matter of subjectivity. It is grounded onto a class instead.

Also, there is an innate need for a person to realize his potential in his works. Such need is what makes human different from other animals say, monkeys. He creates products, via creative and conscious activities, and that products reflect himself. Once these products are taken away from him, he would feel as if he has lost part of him. This is what happening in a capitalist world. A person is being alienated from his product.

Alienated Labour

However, a worker is not only being alienated from his products. He is alienated from the process of production, from his species essence (self-estrangement) as well as from his fellow workers.

Alienation From His Products

“... the worker is related to the product of his labour as to an alien object. For on this premise it is clear that the more the worker spends himself, the more powerful the alien objective world becomes which he creates over-against himself, the poorer he himself – his inner world – becomes, the less belongs to him as his own” (Marx, 1844). As mentioned above, man expresses himself into his products. However, in the capitalist society, working is a means to an end. The workers commodify their labour power and work in order to get money. They produce a lot of products but can claim none to them because the products are owned by the capitalists. In other words, the producers are separated from things which they produced. This can cause devastating effect to the workers.

For an illustration, imagine a poor 5 years old prodigy boy who draws very well. His drawings are very unique and are used by this boy to express himself (such as his anger or his happy moments). That is human nature. The need to express himself and relate himself to the objects produced. One day, a wealthy person arrives and takes away all his drawings. The buyer only drops a few coins to the boy as an exchange. Being only a 5 years old boy and poor, he cannot do anything to stop the transaction from happening. He is powerless. Thus, he will feel as if a part of him is being unwillingly torn away. Thus, the producer is separated from the things he produced.
After a while, the boy sees his drawings being displayed in a shop which is selling them at high prices. The boy can only look at his drawings via the glass windows as if the products of his labour are alien objects. He cannot determine how his drawings should be sold, to whom and at what price.

Alienation from the Process of Production

This will lead us to the alienation of workers from the process of production. “This relation is the relation of the worker to his own activity as an alien activity not belonging to him; it is activity as suffering, strength as weakness, begetting as emasculating, the worker's own physical and mental energy, his personal life or what is life other than activity – as an activity which is turned against him, neither depends on nor belongs to him” (Marx, 1844). As stated above, working becomes a means to an end. Even in today's context, every employee will look forward to weekends where they could spend their times doing meaningful activities such as photography, painting and swimming. Everyone has the innate need to fulfil one's potential. For example, a construction worker may love taking pictures and has high potential of becoming a good photographer. However, in reality, very few people can make it into photography field. Realizing that and the need to earn money to pay for daily expenses, the construction worker goes to work everyday but his job does not mean anything to him and offers no innate satisfaction. He may even drag his feet to work everyday. The forced labour is external to the worker and does not belong to his essential beings (Marx, 1844). His human nature to express himself and realize his potential is suppressed in the capitalist society.

“... the external character of labour for the worker appears in the fact that it is not belong to him, that in it he belongs, not to himself, but to another” (Marx, 1844). As in the case of the prodigy boy where his drawings are being sold without him having a say as to what values to be placed his drawings, producers do not control their products. The construction worker may build a nice condominium but no doubt, he can never live there due to the meagre salary paid to him. The product now confronts the producers with hostility and only money can unite the product and the producers. “Money is the pimp between man's need and the object, between his life and his means of life” (Marx, 1844).

Alienation from His Species Being

What distinguishes between animals and human beings is that human could potentially gain greater control over their own creations through creative and conscious life activities (Scott, 2006 ; Marx, 1844). “Conscious life-activity directly distinguishes man from animal life-activity. It is just because of this that he is a species being that he is a Conscious Being, ie., that his own life is an object for him. Only because of that is his activity free activity.” (Marx, 1844). In the capitalist society, however, a man works against his consciousness. He becomes a robot and keeps doing routinized work. With the introduction of machineries, his skills become redundant and he will lose his creativity. A worker may be drilling holes into large cylinders and at the same time is unaware where the parts will end up and how his work is useful to others. He will spend more hours working in the factory despite longing to do something else and turns his life-activity into a means to an end. Thus, the worker loses his species essence in the capitalist society.

Alienation from His Fellow Workers

The capitalists also try to outdo each other. In doing so, each capitalist wants to incorporate new machines and technology into their factory so as to improve efficiency and hence, generate more profits. With the arrival of machineries, the workers' skills become irrelevant and machineries will only further simplify the workers' jobs. As such, the workers are no longer valued and reduce to no more than just commodities to be traded on the market which can easily be replaced by other new workers from a reserve 'army of labour' (Marshall and Scott, 2005). Knowing that a lot of people are jobless, the exploited workers are willing to work long hours in order to allow them to retain their jobs. By spending long hours in their alienating workplace, they come into minimal contact with others. It is also innately human nature to form meaningful social relationship. However, the factories in a capitalist society, which emphasize on efficiency, do not allow workers to do so. The capitalists would rather see workers competing with each other for jobs, so that they could control freely the amount of wages to be paid to workers. Furthermore, by alienating them from one another, the workers will not come together and class consciousness can therefore be prevented from happening.

Conclusion

While discussing various aspects of alienated labour, we can see that alienated labour cannot be separated from Marx's conception of human nature. Alienated labour challenges human nature. By being alienated from his product, it is as if a part of him is being taken away because his product reflects himself. By being alienated from the process of productions, innate needs to realize one's potential is prohibited. By being alienated from his species essence, he works against his consciousness and his life-activity becomes a means to sustain him physically. Last but not least, alienation from workers deprives him from having meaning social relationships – something which is essential to a social animal. Hence, Marx's conception of human nature is crucial to his discussion of alienated labour in capitalist society.

Others’ Perspectives on Human Nature and Alienation

It is worthy to take note that there are different concepts on human nature. For example, Max Weber does not acknowledged human nature as something innate to human. Rather, he believes that human nature is the product of and being moulded by various experiences and events. Alienation, on the other hand, is due more towards the bureaucratic nature of capitalist society. Weber sees bureaucracy's potential to dehumanise workers (Macionis and Plummer, 2005). Efficiency is essential to a bureaucratic organization and workers have to remain impersonal in order to achieve efficiency. The workers put up a bureaucratic personality and become insensitive to the personal needs of the clients. They are thus alienated from their true feelings and are prevented from forming meaningful social relationships.

As for Heidegger (1927), human beings were constantly in danger of forgetting their place in this everyday world of Being. Human beings are to some extent always homeless beings; being without a place in the world, they are alienated from their reality (Turner, 1999). On the other hand, Sigmund Freud sees human as innately selfish and egoistic, a view directly opposite to that of Karl Marx which views human as intrinsically altruistic and co-operatives (Marshall and Scott, 2005).

References

Books
Edles, Laura D. and Appelrouth, S. 2005. Sociological Theory In The Classical Era. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Pine Forge Press.
Turner, Bryan S. 1999. Classical Sociology. Thousand Oaks, Ca: SAGE Publications Inc.
Scott, J. 2006. Social Theory : Central Issues In Sociology. Thousand Oaks, Ca: SAGE Publications Inc.
Scott, J. 2007. Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Marshall, G. and Scott, J. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. NY: Oxford University Press Inc.
Macionis, John J. and Plummer, K. 2005. Sociology: A Global Introduction. Edinburgh Gate, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Readings
'Labour', in The Thought of Karl Marx, ed. D. McLellan. London; Basingstoke: Macmillan, pp. 167-176.

Bollywood: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

2009-07-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

A 33 pages research paper; including 3 reference pages.

The challenge:

To compile an astronomical amount of information from the 5 of us into a 30-pages research paper.

Many books were read only to find out that a lot of them were irrelevant.

We got an A grade for this paper.

CS 117 Media in the Modern World: Social Trends and Popular Culture
Bollywood: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Filzah Amalia Bte Rahmat
Julaiha Binti Meshudi
Loh Jun Qin
Nur Rashidah Binte Amren
Siti Zawiah Bte Abd Malek
Nanyang Technological University

Abstract

The Indian film industry developed since the early 1910s. They were first made without sound and with the advent of new technology, films in sound were produced. It was one of the defining moments in the development of the industry, as it was then that new elements were introduced in the film productions. Hindi language was made the main language used in the films, and song and dance sequences were inserted in the storyline. Ever since, the Hindi film industry has developed into the dominant film industry in India, and that Hindi films have evolved into a distinct genre of film of its own. Also commonly labeled as the ‘Bollywood’ films, these films have also created an impact on various aspects in our lives. In this paper, we will first introduce the ‘Bollywood’ film industry in general, and mention some critiques that have been made against it. Secondly, we will be presenting the history of the industry, followed by its mainplayers. Next, we discuss the social and economic impact of the industry, as well as its influence on other countries. Lastly, we present our brief group discussion on these various aspects of the Bollywood industry.

The ‘Bollywood’ Film Industry

When referring to a ‘Bollywood’ film, we mean a Hindi film aimed at a commercial mass-market and produced in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), a film-producing region which gained prominence in the domestic film market in the 1950s (Alessio & Langer, 2007). In this essay, the terms ‘Bollywood film’ and ‘Hindi film’ will be used interchangeably.

The name Bollywood was started in 1976 by a crime fiction writer H. R. F. Keating. It was a controversial term that even the Hindi film actors found hard to accept. Hindi film producers also resented the comparison of Bollywood to Hollywood (Chopra, 2007). To quote from the article by Minocha and Stonehouse (2006), “Let the Americans be. We are the Mumbai (the hub for the Hindi film industry) film industry and no Hollywood.”

‘Bollywood’ is considered as an industry which tries to reproduce the products of its successful counterpart, Hollywood. The name 'Bollywood' itself, which was derived from the word 'Bombay' and 'Hollywood’, suggests that the Hindustani cinema is imitating Hollywood. It was seen as insulting as it made Bollywood seem like a derivation from Hollywood (Dwyer, 2005). If one is buying an original pair of Nike shoes, one would not expect the original form to be the same as the imitation ones. In fact, people usually regard original products as superior to their imitations. Likewise, Bollywood is often considered as subordinate to Hollywood, mainly because the industry is taking place in a developing country, India. Despite the displeasure of those in the film industry however, the name was used by the media and later used widely. It was even included in the fifth edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Chopra, 2007).

The Western scholars assume that it is the economic factor that caused Bollywood to rise and maintain its status as an important source of entertainment to the Indians. Since the Indian economic condition is not as well as the West, Indians could not afford to buy foreign films for entertainment and hence, created their very own film industry. How true can this be? Is Bollywood simply an imitation of Hollywood? Studies have shown that Bollywood has its own ways in film making. For instance, song and dance sequences have been introduced into its films because a lack of them would mean the lack of entertainment value for the viewers.

There are also debates as to where Bollywood should be placed; First World Cinema or Third World Cinema. The former is characterized as being funded by big capital and commercialized non-political films whereas the latter is linked to being nationalist, popular cinema with uncritical audiences. However, Bollywood films seem to belong in both Cinemas.
Firstly, there is no doubt that Bollywood films need a lot of capital to be produced as can be seen from the quality of the screening (microphones, cameras, lightning etc.), the place of film shooting (Paris, New York etc.) and the heavily commercialization of them (the movies are exported out to various countries). Fans of Bollywood superstars come from all over the world and this proves how well the Bollywood industry has been marketed.
At the same time, Bollywood can also be seen as nationalistic. There are a lot of films, where the Indian-ness is emphasized and other social practices such as the caste systems are challenged in a variety of manner (in terms of a comedy or a serious manner). Therefore, it is a rather difficult task to categorize Bollywood films under only either of the categories.

Bollywood films have also often been considered as lacking in merit and hence, many film scholars refused to study it. They were not regarded as a useful platform in understanding Indian society until recently. ‘It was of then characterized as being meretricious, escapist, mindless drivel and totally irrelevant to the understanding of Indian society and culture.’ (Dissanayake, 2003).

Dissanayake also revealed the factors which influence today's Bollywood narratives. Firstly, they are heavily influenced by the ancient epics of Hindu religious belief and are male-oriented. Even the female roles in the epics are played by males in theatre. Another factor is the classical cinema of Hollywood itself (1930s to 1950s) from which some filming ideas have been adapted from. However, a point is that Bollywood is the product of a localized Hollywood. The idea is similar to glocalization whereby a global product is localized to meet the wants and tastes of respective consumers. For instance, Parsi plays contribute to the dancing elements in Bollywood with MTVs supplying new upbeat dance-movements for Bollywood.
History of the Indian Film Industry

The Indian film industry developed since the early 1910s. Its beginning is marked by the silent film Raja Harishchandra(1913), by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who later went on to produce a string of other silent films. The industry gradually developed and many production companies were set up over time by the late 1920s. Movies were silent then, and since the languages spoken and literacy of the audiences varied, the movies usually had subtitles to explain the actions and sometimes the number of subtitles could be as many as in four languages! (Bose, 2006). This was significant as it helped to garner a wider range of audiences.

In March 1931, the first Indian sound film was produced. The introduction of sound films allowed Indian producers to make more Indian films and the importation of foreign films greatly decreased. As written by Bose, ‘the trepidation over the coming of sound had given way to unbounded optimism’ (Bose, 2006, p. 75). The introduction of song and dance segments in films (partially derived from a tradition of folk-music drama), ‘played an important role in winning for the sound film an instant and widening acceptance’ (Bose, 2006, p. 75). The element of music is significant, as it paved the way for the ‘very distinctive development of Bollywood, taking it away from Hollywood and marking the very different world in Hindi cinema.’ ((Bose, 2006, p. 75).

However, this new development also posed a new dilemma. India comprises of many spoken languages, and a decision had to be made to choose a common language for the films. After the British left India, Hindi became the national language, as it was used relatively more than any other language and was generally understood in most of India, except for in the south. (Bose, 2006), hence it became the common language used in films.

One solution for the problem of language barriers was that successful films in one language would be acted out again in another language. Alternatively, a more cost-saving way was to shoot a few versions concurrently, by employing multi- or bilingual actors to act the same scenes in different languages. Also, the divide in the use of languages led to different language areas to develop a production of its own. A prominent example is the Tamil films, typically produced in Madras. The industry was quick to develop, but was never a threat of replacing Bombay as the movie capital of India, as the latter was the centre of Hindi films, which provided the more lucrative market. (Bose, 2006)

The ‘Golden Age’ of the India cinema occurred during the 1950s. The first International Film Festival of India was organized by the government in 1952, which was held in Bombay. This gave the Hindi filmmakers an exposure to Italian neorealism which was used by directors like Bimal Roy (Heide, 2006). In 1955, at the European film festivals, “Pather Panchali” became the first Hindi film to receive an award.

The Hindi film industry then developed with the increasing importance of stars. Since then, the films were focused more on the love stories. Actors’ charm served as an attraction to gain more audience while actresses’ also began to dress more provocatively to gain attention. Although the industry began near the beginning of the century, government legalization on the status of the industry was only confirmed in around 1998 to 1999. It was found that India has been the biggest film producer in the world, producing about eight hundred to a thousand films annually. In comparison, the rate of films produced in Hollywood then was only half of that (Srinivas, 2002).

Just as how the industry grew over time, so have the film genres evolved. Hindi cinema began with mythological films by Dadasaheb Palke followed by the social films in the 1930s. While mythological films featured narratives of Hindu gods and goddesses, social film narratives usually reflected the issues, norms and behaviors of the society. An example is Himanshu Rai’s production of Achut Kanya in 1936. The film hit revolved around the topic of the caste system, in which the untouchable girl was unable to marry a man from the upper tier of the caste. In the 1950s, films that portrayed the trend of speaking for the underdogs emerged. Some examples are Raj Kapoor’s film Awaara, produced in 1951 and Boot Polish produced in 1954.

There was a discernable shift of the genre in the late 1960s and early 1970s whereby audiences were presented with the ‘angry young man’ films of Amitabh Bachchan that carried value-ridden plots against the corrupt and the rich. ‘Bachchan was the brooding loner, with very little time for song and dance, and no hesitation in taking the law into his own hands to ensure justice, which the system had failed to provide, was meted out to deserving criminals.’ (Bose, 2006, p. 268) Such films usually reflect the pent up anger of that generation, in view of the negative societal conditions. Finally, in the late 1980s and 1990s, films depicting young romance emerged with the productions such as Yash Chopra’s Chandni in 1989 and Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998 (Kripalani, 2006).

The development of Hindi films also reached a new height, when Lagaan (2001), a film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, was nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film. The film had set the benchmark of success for future films of the new era to follow suit. As said by Noel Rands, an actor in Lagaan, the film ‘was Bollywood’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It gave a different dimension to Bollywood internationally.’(Bose, 2006, p. 345).

The development of the Hindi film industry seems to be relatively progressive. However, yet unknown to many, in the 1990s, most Hindi films were believed to be funded by “dubious money” (Athique, 2008). The claim meant that the films were produced by using money gained from criminal and illegal activities such as tax avoidances in India. Underground figures usually made the decisions in the production of a film. They may even allow small businessmen to become their own film producers whereby famous actors and actresses act in the films.

A very common situation in the Hindi film industry is that a distributor invests in a film and puts his own ideas to the film through the producer. At the same time, theatre owners will charge the distributor a very unreasonably high rent for the usage of the facility to screen the films. With the taxes, unreliable feedback from the box office and also competition among the different players from the industry, the distributor fails to earn enough capital to cover the production costs. As a result, these distributors have to turn to illegal sources so as to raise money. Illegal sources are private investors mostly from the construction, jewelry and associated trades.

To quote from the article by Athique (2008), “not only are there such high returns in lending money to film producers, but unaccounted money can be put to use in an industry where stars and others usually get paid in cash and receipts are only issued for a fraction of the total amount involved… it is not surprising then to find pirates, thieves, criminals and underworld dons attempting their hand in the film industry.” Living in fear of being threatened or even killed by these underground figures, actors, actresses, directors and producers have to obey every single word of these “investors”.

Characteristics of a Typical Hindi Film

Hindi films fit into a loose category of song-and-dance, masal movies. This term, originally coined by theorist Rosie Thomas, is a Hindi word which is used to mean a ‘spicy’ mix of at least eight song-and-dance numbers and on a cinematic level, a seemingly inexorable combination of genres, narratives and points of view (Boltin, 2003). The location of a Hindi film production may differ from one film to another, depending on the demands from the script, availability and preferences of the producers or directors. However, typically, filming takes place in Mumbai, with occasional shootings in foreign countries.

One characteristic of a Bollywood film is that most films are just like musicals. There is a minimum of six to eight songs in a Bollywood film. The actors often take up familial roles; such as the father or son. They would usually have to know how to dance, fight and even do comical scenes in the film. The song and dance segments require a major portion of the film’s budget as the setting for these segments are usually very “well-equipped and lavished” (Srinivas, 2002). A setting can take on days to be created and built just for a few minutes of song and dance.

Usually, Bollywood film takes up about three to three and a half hours. Hence, it is common to have an intermission in between the screening of the film for the audience to have a break of ten to fifteen minutes. This has become a practice and the Hindi audience group has been so used to it that if the break gets over the fifteen minutes maximum interval, they start to get restless and may even leave their seats or start chatting loudly with their companions. It is common to hear a bell ringing in some theatres as an indication of the continuation of the film and there may even be ushers outside the theatres to usher the viewers back into the theatre (Srinivas, 2002).

Technology enabled the Hindi film industry to grow. With sound, the signature of a Hindi film allowed audiences to enjoy the music of the songs to which the actors danced to (Chopra, 2007). These film features of music and dance were and are still the central feature of the films. When one mentions Bollywood, the many dance scenes and enormous wardrobe comes to mind. It is the famous trademark of Hindi films. In 1930s, Hindi films dominated the market amongst the other Indian language movies. Between the 1930s and the 1940s, films would have as many as forty songs. However, in 1950s, the number of songs per film dropped to less than 10 per film (Chopra, 2007).

Bollywood’s Main Players

Script writers and directors helped to increase the popularity of the Bollywood cinema through their works. Script writers usually focused on the Indian culture, society, politics and history when writing the script. It is very unlikely to offer new stories to attract worldwide audiences. Hindi films lack of innovative ideas. Only in recent years Bollywood managed to gain more popularity through the influence of Anglo Hindi films such as Bend It Like Beckham, Pride and Prejudice, Hollywood Bollywood and East is East (Minocha & Stonehouse, 2006). The script-writers also have the discretion as to what to be included in the films. For example, C.N. Annadurai who is a politician cum script-writer has succeeded in steering the films into certain political direction by incorporating some political agendas into the films (Dissanayake, 2003).

Directors, just like the script-writers have the freedom to steer the direction of the films to the ways they want them to be. For example, Anand, C. who has overtly declared himself as a leftist has managed to create films which glorify war. It shows the importance of every Indian to fight for the country and how war can creates unconditional and true friendships among the Indian fighters (Chakravarty, 1998). Shyam Benegal is another director who has been honored in India on many instances. His films are described by the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh as being “distinguished, innovative and socially conscious. Benegal’s work shows woman to be intelligent, powerful, determined, yet humane and compassionate. It is unlike the traditional films where woman were casted as subservient and docile females (Heide, 2006).

Another important main player in Bollywood are the producers. Without them, the movies are not produced for the audiences. In the 1960, the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) was formed. The FFC was initially responsible for “assisting and promoting the mainstream film industry, but became, through the direction of Indira Gandhi herself, a funding organization for ‘modest but off-beat films of talented and promising people in the field” (Heide, 2006). The films produced by FFC were mostly in regional language instead of being solely in Hindi.

Different production companies produced films of different genre. Producers are usually the ones making all the decisions in regards to how the film should be shot. Films from Rajshri Productions usually focused on romance storyline whereby a poor boy meets a rich girl or vice versa. They have a lot of song and dance that involves the whole family of the boy or girl in occasions such as marriage, unions and festivals and then the boy and the girl falls in love and subsequently, the relationship will be found out by the families. The ending of these films is usually a happy ending for all. Films from BR Films usually focused on families. The typical story is usually whereby the father of the family is the hero and key figure of the film. Songs and dances are also inculcated into the films but they act as a means of showing a social message. Everyone in BR Films are usually involved when it comes to making decisions on the shooting of the film (Minocha & Stonehouse, 2006). Yash Raj Films started its own distribution in the 1990s. In the recognition of the prospective chances in the overseas markets, Yash Raj started its own offices in London and New York in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Films produced by Yash Raj gained success in these countries. Besides, being aware of the piracy market, Yash Raj even instigated raids and legal proceedings against the piracy sector and the activities were publicized in their website as a mean a ‘naming and shaming’ outlets that have been prosecuted for keeping pirated copies of Yash Raj films. This serves as a warning that the Indian producers are actively involved in attempts to bring illegal trades of the Hindi films to prosecution (Athique, 2008).

Following the producers are the distributors. Film distributors distribute the Hindi films throughout India and at times, to the other parts of the world. They determine the number of prints to be bought and the extent of the distribution of a film based on the film’s estimated popularity and revenue payback. At times, the distributors will sell the distribution rights to overseas distributors before the release of the film, during the release of the film or even after the release of the film (Minocha & Stonehouse, 2006). Bharat Shah also known as Mr. Moneybags was the leading financier and distributor of Hindi films. He is a diamond merchant whom finances Hindi film, financing a hit film called Devdas (Chopra, 2007).

Audiences serve as the consumers of Bollywood industry. Audiences to the Hindi films differ from class, religious background and age. To the Indian audience group, Hindi films are similar to variety shows. It is common for the audience to comment loudly on the films during its screening, which is not typical in movie screenings in other parts of the world. Songs and dances in the Hindi films also add spice to the film. For the Indian audience, Hollywood movies are too short and boring as usually, there is nothing else other than the conservations between the actors and actresses (Srinivas, 2002).

Besides, the viewing of a Hindi film for the Indian audience is like a gathering event for the family. They watch the film in big groups of around eight to ten people of all ages, from different generations. The female group of the Indian audience, in particular, would watch an earlier show with their friends or female companions but when with their families, they will go for the evening show. In general, going to a movie alone in the Indian culture is like an anti-social or unnatural act and it is common for a person to view a film several times as the person watches the film with a different companion group each time (Srinivas, 2002).

Furthermore, the Indian audience may do selective viewing. For example, if the viewer finds the song and dance sequences of the film boring, they may leave the theatre and only come back when the scene has moved on. It is also a common practice for the Indian audience to leave the theatre before the film has fully ended. Thus it is very common to see a sudden freeze shot of the last scene of the film to indicate the end of the film, without the rolling of the film credits (Srinivas, 2002).

The audiences may watch the same movie but the meanings they give to the movie may differ. They are not passive audiences but usually relate themselves to the actors and actresses in the films they are watching. For example, a movie which challenges the caste system will make these audiences to evaluate and think about the injustice done to some of the lower caste in their societies, like the untouchables. However, other audiences will end up emphasizing the need to preserve the caste system which is an important aspect of the Hindu religion, in order to avoid chaos and fighting as shown in the movie (Dissanayake, 2003).

Lastly, another important player of the Bollywood industry is the Board of Censor. In making a film, certain social rules must be observed. For example, in Amar Akhbar Anthony where the three siblings are separated and brought up by different family (Amar – a Hindu family, Akhbar – a Muslim family and Anthony – a Christian family), the women they loved come from the same religious background as themselves. No intermarriages were included in the plot as the director was worried that the film may not get past the Board of Censor since the latter might consider the content as carrying some 'disturbing' elements and cause unhappiness among the audiences (Chakravarty, 1998).

Bollywood’s Social Impact

Bollywood films create an impact on society in many ways. In this section, several aspects of how such films may affect viewers will be discussed.

Firstly, we discuss how films may influence viewers with new ideas that are atypical to a particular society. Secondly, we discuss on how ideological constructs can affect viewers, focusing on the topics which challenge or uphold the social norms. Thirdly, we would like to show how the actors and actresses are idolized by the fans to the extent of being worshipped. Lastly, we examine how Bollywood propaganda films may serve to reconstruct memories of historical instances.

Introducing New Ideas and Products

Prior to independence, the Nehru government funded the Hindi films in order to disseminate the ideas of being a free Indian nation that possess their own identity free from Western influences. Due to India's colonial history with the British, cinema is viewed as an essential mode of stimulating public opinion and it is seen as important platform to further the cause for independence and Indian-ness (Dissanayake, W. 2003, Jaikumar, 2006).Upon independence, a lot of films were produced to show the audiences on how to become a true Indian. According to Chopra (2007), “Globalization, and the ensuing consumerism and competition, created an enormous cultural churning”. India had to deal with modernity and the Indian identity was beginning to blur. Through Bollywood films, film makers and script writers tried to provide an answer to what being Indian was. For example, films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham tried to tell the people that Indians could be a hybrid. Indians could embrace the global culture while maintaining their essence of being a Hindustani (Chopra, 2007). This true Indian no longer frowned upon the Western influence but instead to embrace it alongside their local culture. Such example can be found in the song lyrics of one of the Hindi films as shown below:

“The shoes I`m wearing are made in Japan
My trousers fashioned in England
The red cap on my head in Russian
In spite of it all my heart is Indian.”
From Mr. 420 (1955)

Not only do Bollywood films bring in new ideas, they also introduce new places and products. During this period of post independence, many of the Bollywood films like to shoot their films overseas.

The main reason for this was to feed the longing of the average Indian who could not afford to fly overseas. These audiences would find satisfaction by watching in the films sceneries of foreign places. By putting themselves in their favourite actor or actress's shoes, they could play with their imaginations and imagine themselves as being in the foreign places. Particular sequences in a Hindi film may influence viewers to harbor thoughts of the possibilities in life that transcends what society has subscribed for them. For instance, in one scene of the movie Diwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) or The One with the Heart Takes the Bride, the protagonists, a couple in love, are seen to be traveling to Switzerland on their own.

Banaji (2006) found that ‘young female viewers in Bombay discussed the scenes preceding and following the European ‘tour’ or ‘picnic’ as a period of heightened emotional involvement for themselves and one that provoked thoughts about their own lives and their wishes to leave the confines of their homes for more extended periods than was acceptable to their parents’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 61).

One of his interviewee, Neha, described the similarities she found between her life and the heroine’s, emphasizing the lack of independence in her life. For instance, she mentions that ‘she has to take permission, even to go for a picnic’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 61). Another interviewee mentioned that she liked most the scene when the protagonists in love first met, and watching that scene made her think about her own life and romance; of wanting the independence ‘by leaving home before marriage, and to be involved in a passionate relationship such as one depicted in DDLJ’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 62). These examples indicate that Hindi films might influence individuals in the way they wish they could lead their lives. However, this does not mean that each film affects individuals in a uniform direction. As seen in the examples, the viewers are affected by particular segments of a film, which they find more relatable to their own experiences in life.

Presently, the emergence of satellite channels also influences the tastes of the Indian audiences, especially from the new generations. The way these people dressed, talked and dance are heavily influenced by films or programmes shown by these satellite channels. Not to be excluded is the impact of these channels on Indian cinema. For example, the Indian chorographers adapt MTV dance moves into their own works. Music is another important element in the Bollywood film industry. Most sales of music tapes and albums in India comprises of the soundtrack from Bollywood films. In addition, the songs from the Bollywood films have also created a new genre for Indian pop music known as the Hindipop or Indipop (Scrase, 2002).

Bollywood is the key factor in introducing luxury items and wealth to the Indian audience (Kumar & Curtin, 2002). For example, Honda motorbikes have the popular actor Hrithik Roshan as their brand ambassador. Hrithik Roshan’s racy screen image is generally reinforced with a sleek speed machine as his accessory. In Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage, in which he stars with Amisha Patel, Hrithik’s mode of transport is a big heavy motorbike. In Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (KKKG), his character Rohan makes his first appearance on campus in London in a sleek red sports car with gull-wing doors. The camera spends some time on the car and its unique features, finally revealing the muscular, toned body behind the wheel. Soon after that he switches to riding around campus on a beautiful yellow motorbike, and after that we see him offering a ride to his brother in a two-seater Mercedes Benz convertible (Kripalani, 2006).
Sometimes, the products are either woven into the story or placed in the backdrop. For instance, Hum Tum in 2004 neatly places the Times of India in the film, by making the male protagonist a cartoonist for this newspaper. Banners and other references to this newspaper appear on a number of occasions. There is also the bag of Lays Potato Chips, while Kodak film too makes an appearance (Kripalani, 2006). Through these product placements, the various brands are able to advertise their products via the films as it is an effective medium to reach the masses.
Upholding or Challenging Social Norms

At times, Hindi films also serve to reiterate existing values and norms in the society, in this context, the Indian society. A common theme is the family- its values and the accepted conduct within the family, especially so in terms of marriage. For example, in DDLJ, the heroine’s father is portrayed as rigid, restrictive and the one with total authority over the family affairs. Upon discovering his daughter’s love affair with the hero, he relocated his family to Punjab, to marry his daughter off to a man of his choice. She, on the other hand, had no choice but to give in to her father’s will. In another film, Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! (NAHK) or Who Am I to You…?, the hero sacrifices his own happiness by allowing his love to marry his brother instead, whom he also loved dearly. These examples delineate the importance of duty and sacrifice and that ‘duty to family generally triumphs over individual passion’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 88).

Bollywood films serve to reaffirm certain social values such as communal ties, dowry, patriarchal and caste systems in its films. In reaffirming the norm of the patriarchal system, the value of being dutiful and behaving dutifully is usually depicted in film narratives, as an endorsement to the system. For instance, in DDLJ, the hero refuses to elope with the heroine despite her pleas to be taken away and that her mother actually agreed to it. Firstly, it indicates that women are in the weaker position of autonomy as ‘both women are silenced by his claiming of a righteous path’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 75). Secondly, although the hero was not represented as the typical authoritarian male, ‘this young man’s homilies on respect and duty appear as bearers of male-identified tradition, power and control’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 76). Such narratives in the film- even subtly- showcases the ideal of conduct of both genders; the women as submissive to the male views and the men as recognizing their role of their authority. It also signifies the existence of a gender hierarchy, whereby men are placed above women. This actually goes to legitimizing the ideological construct of patriarchy.

Bollywood films perpetuate values that are believed to be what the society should have, such as honour and sacrifice. For example, Mother India shows the importance of a law abiding citizen. In this film, the mother was forced to sacrifice one of her sons in order to prevent the honor of their village from being marred by her son’s rebellion (Dwyer, 2005).

Some of the audiences accept the norms and values in their society through these films. Banaji (2006) shows an example- ‘Implying that she had used the film to help her to come to accept her father’s authority, Neha explained: ‘After watching [DDLJ], I tried to understand from my father’s side why he won’t send me [out of the house] and what things can happen after going out.’’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 66) The interviewee finds justifications for the societal norms, by making inferences to the film-. Banaji (2006) explains that ‘Neha’s phrase ‘what things can happen’ applies, quite poignantly, not only to the accidents or unpleasant encounters that parents may fear for their offspring, but also to the possibilities for self-realisation and emotional stimulation that may open outside the narrow confines of the home’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 66), as how it occurred to the heroine in DDLJ. Another interviewee also justified the actions of the heroine’s authoritarian father, explaining that older people have the right to mend the young people’s stubborn and mischievous acts.

Besides upholding these norms, we can also see films which challenge the traditional norms. In light of the Indian women issues, Bollywood has been said to have the greater influence on the Indian women than Hollywood does. Films portray women as no longer being the submissive, demure and traditional group. Instead, they have been empowered with independence and are more daring than their predecessors. Under the influence of Bollywood TV and films, women began to dress more provocatively, which, to the more traditional and conservative audience, such images of an Indian women are unacceptable and deemed as shameful (Scrase,2002). Hence, Bollywood has become an important role in influence women to advance their social roles. This attests the fact that India is moving towards post modernity. We can see Indians freeing themselves from tradition and questioning once-considered absolute truths such as the importance of the caste system.

The norms challenged or reinforced in the films have varying responses from the audience. The impacts of such typical ideological constructs in Hindi films are more complicated. The ideas propagated through the films are not simply passively internalized. In the research by Banaji (2006), some of his interviewees reacted against them. For instance, a male interviewee questioned about why the heroine’s autonomy to marry a person of her choice should be robbed, and protested against marriage for the sake of pleasing parents and not for love. He is implying that duty and sacrifice ought not to be compromised with individual happiness.

Another female interviewee’s attitude towards the heroine was described as ‘morally averse to the need for her to sacrifice’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 73) and she ‘asserts that clan honour is the reason for fathers’ and parents’ rigid control of their daughters’ relationships’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 74). The concept of honour in its cultural context, involves being loyal to a friend, for instance by marrying off a daughter to the friend’s son, and that assures the preserving of her virtue and hence the preserving of the father’s honour as the patriarch. In this case, the interviewee indicates that she rationalized the film’s message and is aware about the significance of ‘honour’ in the patriarchal system; of how it legitimizes the system.

These examples illustrate that viewers might have already been aware of and have formed their own criticisms about the ideological systems their lives are embedded within. Therefore, they might not be influenced by the ideas in the film that serve to reinforce those systems. Rather, they would tend to be critical about such a film itself.

The impacts of ideological constructs vary from person to person. We cannot simply generalize that the films have been successful in their spread of ideologies nor can we deny its possible influences. Viewers receive, interpret, and are affected by the same cultural content differently. This is mainly because they have different life backgrounds, which inevitably are the premises from which they draw meanings of the films.

Idol Worshipped

According to Chopra (2007), a fifty-plus housewife named Sani Mann of Australia said that Shah Rukh put “passion, magic and delight” in her life, devoted her days to running six Shah Rukh Khan online fan clubs (she belong to over a hundred), collecting memorabilia, magazines, DVDs and communing with other fans on the internet. In 2002, to celebrate Shah Rukh’s birthday, Sandi had a star in the scorpius constellation named Shah Rukh Khan. The following year, she bought him a block of land on the moon. Sandi believed that Shah Rukh had “some kind of grace within him, like he’s been touched by god.”

Chopra (2007) also wrote that, “These stories of worship were repeated with varying intensity around the globe. Women showed up at Shah Rukh’s door, requesting that they’d be allowed to wash his feet and drink the water. Others wrote him letters in blood (presumably their own). One fan, a young man named Vishal, living in Lucknow, rechristened himself Vishahrukh and believed that he had beat cancer gnawing at his kidneys because Shah Rukh was on his side”. Here, we see how the Bollywood stars are idolized by their fans to the extent of juxtaposing them with mythical beings.

As previously said, the Bollywood film audiences equate actors with god and many of the actors and actresses are venerated by the people (Tyrrell, 1999). Some of the actors even enter politics, such as Amitabh Bachchan (as we will discuss below). Some gain wealth due to the generosity of their fans, including the poor fans. For example, the poor are even willing to chip in wedding gifts to be given to the newly wed celebrity couples, Aiswarya Rai and Abishek Bachchan. It shows how celebrities are regarded highly and worshipped.

In 1984, Amitabh Bachchan got an unexpected victory over a political territory in India. He went all the way to help the poor and tried to meet the expectations of the people. Bachchan set up a trust to fund the free medical checkups project. He was worshipped and there was a large mammoth cutout on Madras streets of him. When a celebrity becomes a politician, he or she will gain more attention as compared to others who become a politician via other means. As the results, people are more interested in the tiny details of the celebrity-turn-politician's activities. Like the interview between writer Khalid and Amitabh Bachchan, the former asked whether Bachchan felt being closely scrutinized by the people. The reply was positive. Bachchan even said that when he did something insignificant like growing a beard, it became national disaster (Mohamed, K. 2002).

Despite all the negative gossips surrounding Amitabh Bachchan during his political years, he is still every Indian's idol. He represents India and when there are conflicts in the entertainment world with the public, he stands as the mediator. For example, when a lot of Indians were unhappy about having Miss World pageant in Bangalore in 1996, comments from Amitabh Bachchan to the public managed to subside the commotion. This shows how the public regards their film idol as someone knowledgeable and respects his or her opinions.
Reconstructing memories

‘The desire amongst many young viewers to ignore or forget the systematic nature of the sexual violence and murder as well as the sustained economic and social elimination of Muslims taking place in parts of India and the organized political dimension to anti-Muslim prejudice and to what they have come to term ‘religious riots’ is, meanwhile sometimes subtly and sometimes openly endorsed by the Hindi films that they have seen depicting such ‘riots’. Indeed, to differing degrees, films such as Bombay, Hey! Ram (Kamal Hasan 2000) and Gadar have been accused of a deliberate perpetuation of myths about Muslim ‘otherness’, the role of the Indian Muslim community during so-called ‘riots’ and the ways in which such ‘riots’ are instigated.(Banaji, 2006, p. 133)

Films as such are made in attempt to shape what people may recall of certain historical events and influence their perceptions of those events. In this case, the event was the genocide of Muslims by Hindus in India. The film Bombay for instance- ‘leads viewers to dwell on it in a manner similar to that of documentary footage or political propaganda rather than merely as fictional ‘entertainment’.’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 135) In the process, the already tarnished perceptions of the Indian Muslims might have been worsened. Some viewers ‘displayed a belief in the propaganda of the Hindu Right and a willingness to acknowledge and/or rationalize their distrust and dislike of Muslims.’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 142) One of his interviewees explained that he became angry upon watching a woman being raped by a gang of Muslim men in Hey! Ram, as this scene might possibly entice Muslim men watching this to really rape Hindu women. This fits into the analysis whereby ‘feeding into Hindu communal fantasies of Muslim men as predators and sexually violent, the segment depicts men marked as Muslim as a marauding crowd that preys on Hindu and Sikh women’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 144).

In the movie Bombay, Banaji (2006) explained that the interviewee’s ‘assertion that the bombs that killed hundreds of people in Bombay in 1993 were the work of Muslims in ‘retaliation’ for the police bias during the ‘riots, Harish expresses a view of the Muslim community which posits them as uncontrolled and prey to dangerous passions.’ (Banaji, 2006, p. 143). Such a view reiterates ‘the notion that nothing was done to Muslims during the riots, that only Muslims were the aggressors and that Hindus were entirely the victims until they began to defend themselves, a version of events that right-wing Hindus are keen to endorse. (Banaji, 2006, p.144)

On one hand, we have to consider how viewers like Harish might have their own prejudices in isolation from such films. However, the point to be made here is that such films may rouse those prejudicial feelings. This helps to ‘remind’ the masses again about what they are supposed to remember and how they are to perceive particular events, including the people involved. From the case study elaborated, the reconstruction of memories involved the frequent characterization and display of a group of people as the bad ‘other’, and as the focus of the blame for such violent events. In effect, this serves to consolidate the people who belong to the ‘good’ group and it also brings people to shift their focus away from recognizing or remembering other parts of history, such as instances where they themselves might have been perpetrators of violence.

Bollywood’s Economic Impact

When Rupert Murdoch’s STAR network tried to penetrate into the Indian entertainment industry, he prompted the Indians to set up their very own satellite channel called Zee TV (Tyrrell, 1999). With the initial aim of setting up Zee TV to counter Western programmes, it had indirectly introduced new jobs opportunities to the Indians. This venture not only provided new jobs for the Indians in the entertainment sector, but also those industries related to it such as fashion industry. Also, with Zee TV, the entertainment industry is able to go beyond India and into the world’s entertainment market. This would have benefited the local economy.

In 2006, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, The Indian Entertainment and Media Industry, estimated that the Hindi film industry had grown at an incredible 20% in the previous year and predicted similar growth for the next 5 years. The industry, estimated at 68 billion rupees ($1.5 billion) in 2005, was projected to reach 153 billion rupees ($3.4 billion) by 2010 (Chopra, 2007). From this, we can see how the Bollywood film industry contributes substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India.

Influence beyond Its Borders

The Hindi Cinema not only has an impact on its own country, but it has been influencing the countries that surround it, mostly in the Asian continent. Due to globalization, Bollywood films have managed to reach masses from other part of the globe (Tyrrell, 1999). Other countries began to recognize the benefits on having the Bollywood movies filming their movies on their locations. Malaysia has become a popular destination for filming while Thailand is beginning to promote itself as a shooting destination for Hindi films. Not only is revenue to be earned from the shooting itself, but the revenue spinning potential from tourism is endless.

Singapore has also become one of the few destinations that were chosen for on-location filming. Krrish, one of the popular Bollywood movies filmed in 2006, featuring an Indian caped crusader played by Hrithik Roshan, was filmed in Singapore. In July 2005, it was announced that the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) had signed a deal with Indian film-maker, Rakesh Roshan, to shoot 60% of the film in Singapore, and provided logistical support to the shooting of the film. The board believes that the tie up will lead to accelerated tourism as Hindi cinema has a strong following across India and it is an extremely powerful force in shaping the views and opinions of the population. Reportedly, the film has been so popular with Asian audiences in its opening weeks that it outdid Superman at the box-office. Young viewers in Singapore have reported the delight of being at the location where the film was shot, and retracing the steps of the hero along the bridge and down the boulevard. Asian audiences, it would seem, like having their own caped crusader, and having him in familiar territory (Kripalani, 2006).

At the same time, interest in popular Indian cinema and its global culture has literally exploded. What once was purely the domain of the Diaspora of non-resident Indians is now distributed globally and available for Melbournians to see. The distribution of popular Bombay cinema in Melbourne and Sydney is part of a global trend and growing interest in South Asian cinema in its most popular form. The simultaneous release of selected films in Australia, Bombay, the United Kingdom, North America and other sites of the global Indian diasporas serve to incorporate Australian viewers within the global Bollywood film audience (Boltin, 2003).

In South Korea, a group who call themselves The Bollywood Lovers’ Club gathers to watch Hindi movies, which they have subtitled in Korean. They watch in “Indian Style” that is to “make noise, laugh, and abuse the villain.” Also, in a paper called Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities, anthropologist Brian Larkin writes about the influence of Bollywood in Northern Nigeria, where Lebanese exhibitors started importing Hindi films in the 1950s. The Germans are following suit. The first Bollywood film to have a major theatrical release was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham in 2003. Also, DVDs of dubbed Hindi films are sold with the tag line ‘Bollywood macht glücklich!’ which means ‘Bollywood makes you happy!’.
As discussed, Bollywood films are not only enjoyed by the Indian diasporic communities outside India. The industry has also managed to attract an international fanbase.

Bollywood: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

In this section, we would be having a general discussion on the various points mentioned earlier. Firstly, in our view, the term ‘Bollywood’, although disliked by mainplayers of the industry itself, is not a degrading way of labeling the Hindi film. The storyline, props used in, or even the ‘feel’ of the films differ from Hollywood films. There are certain elements in Bollywood films which cannot be found in Hollywood today such as the song-and-dance sequences (unless it’s a musical). While Hindi films are a genre on its own, perhaps this term ‘Bollywood’ can be seen as a strategic branding label of the industry- it sounds catchy, popular and it might be able to tweak the curiosity of impressionable masses to watch the films.

Secondly, the Hindi film industry has long started back in the 1910s. The production of the first silent film Raja Harishchandra(1913), by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, seems to open the doors to many possible future chances in the Hindi film industry. In March 1931, the first Indian sound film was produced. In our opinion, the production of the first Hindi sound film may arise due to the fact that insertion of subtitles might be seen as a hassle eventually over time. Perhaps, the emergence of a common language in India (Hindi) may also influence the decision of the production firms in changing the route of the Hindi films from being silent to sound, as it not only reduces the production time, sound communication also aids in better understanding of the film. Non-verbal communication may be important; however, verbal communication allows better understanding and also gives better exchange of information from the actors to the audiences. Successful films will then be able to earn enough revenue to reproduce the same film but of a different language spoken by the actors and actresses.

Also, success of the Hindi film industry outside India can be considered as relatively slow. Although its development started early in the 1900s, it was only much later that Hindi films have received international recognition. It was only in the 1950s that it first received an award in the European film festival. In an attempt to differ from the Hollywood movies, songs and dances are very often found in Hindi films. This allowed Bollywood films to be a distinctive genre of its own, but at the same time, this may be the very fact that limits foreign viewership. For instance, one who is used to the fast-paced plots, narratives which are somewhat close to real life situations, might find that Bollywood films have narratives which are unnecessarily draggy and too melodramatic, especially so when film protagonists break out into songs every now and then, hence often disrupting the flow of the story.

Perhaps now, with the advent of better technology to improve film productions, together with the rise of globalization and tourism industry, Bollywood films have increasingly been garnering international interest as they serve as a source of snapshots of the culture and life in India, in a more spectacular manner. The types of narrative in the films have also expanded from nationalistic and mythological ones to that of love and romance. Such a generic type of narrative is one that the international viewers could relate to better, therefore contributing to the increase of the films’ appeal.

The increasing acceptance by foreign viewers not only helps to raise the popularity of Bollywood films, it also helps to bring in more revenue for both the Hindi film industry itself and also to the countries of the viewers. The widespread viewership of Bollywood films meant that the Hindi film industry could earn revenue from the box offices of foreign countries. Thus, this allows for more investments in film productions, such as shooting scenes at locations outside India. This may then lead to a boost in the tourism sector, as viewers may start to visit countries that were part of the shooting settings of the films and this will help to increase revenues earned from tourism. The international audience, having taken a peek into what India is like through the films, may very well decide to make India their tourist destination. Likewise, viewers from India might also be enticed to visit locations of film shots abroad.

Nevertheless, although these more modern Hindi films are accepted by many, a minority of the audiences are against them. Many features in such Hindi films are claimed to be influenced by the Western culture. For instance, Indian women are lesser depicted as demure, submissive and traditional. Instead, they are increasingly portrayed as the daring, independent and self-empowered individuals. This is indicated by, for instance, the character’s increasingly provocative outfits and the increasing freedom in inter-gender interactions, which was uncommon in the past. The films also seem to have an influence in women’s roles in the society. With higher education, women have more access to job opportunities which were once only available to men, hence making themselves self-sufficient. Lastly, Bollywood films seem to promote the culture of materialism, whereby people are no longer simply contented with what they have, but wish to pursue material wants. These influences seem to point towards the Westernization of Bollywood films, which is disapproved by some, particularly the older generations, as it signifies the decline of the society’s own set of values and norms.

Among us are some who watch Bollywood films. Most of us agreed that the influence of Hindi films has had an impact on the locals here, particularly the Malay community. Bollywood films are so well liked that local Malay film producers sometimes incorporate features of Bollywood films in serials such as ‘Cinta Bollywood’, which stars the popular actor Aaron Aziz. The Hindi fashion of clothing has also become common amongst the Malays, who wear them during weddings or on Hari Raya, instead of their own traditional costume. News from the industry is also often featured in the local Malay newspaper.

Nevertheless, the fandom here has not escalated to idol worshipping as has happened in India. Firstly, it may be due to the stressful life in Singapore where rationality and practicality overtake non-rational attitudes such as idol worshipping. Although many people turn up at Shah Rukh Khan's show in Singapore recently, most of them would most probably return to their daily routine and forget about Shah Rukh Khan the next day. Perhaps the best investments viewers would make are just purchasing DVDs or subscribing to the cable channel such as Zee TV, to view the films and receive regular inside scoops of the industry.

Conclusion

The Bollywood industry has come a long way since its initial development in the early 1900s. With the development of technology, the quantity and quality of the films have significantly improved over the years. Modernization and globalization have also played a part in shaping Bollywood films into what they are today. Although many features in the films have changed with time to sustain and increase its mass appeal, we have noticed that the feature of song and dance sequences never seems to cease. And in fact, it is through this feature that Bollywood films have managed to carve out an identity of its own, apart from the common notion that they are rip-offs of Hollywood movies. And it is also this distinctive feature that has also contributed to the increasing international viewership of Bollywood films. At the rate that Bollywood films are being produced and developing, it would be no surprise that more award-winning films will soon come to Bollywood’s way.

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