Ask any modern frontman about their musical influences and it’s a near certainty they will bring up Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder.
The atmosphere was far different on our shores however, with the government first banning hard rock concerts, and then in 1990 pulling music from the airwaves if band members sported hair that fell past their shoulders in an attempt to curb the negative influences they felt the music had.
While many rockers booked trips to the salon to comply, Amy of Search and Awie of Wings were vocal members of the rebellion against government censorship, keeping their long hair intact even if it meant being banished from radio and television.
“People always think of censorship as a confrontation between conservative and liberal ideas,” filmmaker Arian Md Zahari told FMT of the governments persistent efforts to police expression, “but it also has a lot to do with the rift between the upper and lower classes,” with rockers, or “Mat Rock” as they were sometimes called, then pegged as a representation of society’s seedy underbelly.
In his new documentary ‘Nasir Jani Melawan Lembaga Puaka’, Arian examines Malaysia’s censorship history through the lens of filmmakers like Nasir Jani, the man behind ‘Kembara Seniman Jalanan’, who as a rock-disciple was deeply affected by what he saw happen to his beloved genre.
Co-producer Zikri Rahman said that Malaysia’s history of censorship precedes the banning of rockers and has roots in the reign of former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose understanding of the media made him adept at suppressing dissenting voices.
“He did it as education minister when he clamped down on student movements, and again as prime minister when he established laws to clamp down on the press.”
On numerous occasions, Mahathir was named by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as one of the world’s biggest “enemies” of the press.
“Also, his idea of Wawasan 2020 was a very binary view of modernisation and development, and he would try to limit things that fell outside of that viewpoint,” Zikri said.
Through their conversations with the current crop of local filmmakers however, the two men found that things have slowly begun to change since Nasir Jani’s time, ironically in part because of Malaysia’s relative lack of internet censorship, a holdover from Mahathir’s tenure.
“A lot of them don’t care about censorship now,” said Arian of the younger filmmakers he’s spoken to. “The times are different for them with the internet.”
This freedom allows them to consume and create content that may run counter to traditional values, bypassing conventional distribution in ways Nasir Jani and his peers never could.
Zikri warned against undue optimism however, as he doesn’t believe the compulsion to suppress alternative views has gone away entirely, or ever will.
“Right now yes, we can access a lot of banned content by going online, but we have to remember that those in power will never remain static and will always be looking to react to new dissenting voices.”
After all, Amy and Awie’s rebellion against censorship didn’t have the happiest ending.
Although fans gave rave reviews to their stand against the government, by 1992 Amy and Awie were to be seen getting a hair cut, live on RTM1, with information minister Mohamed Rahmat snipping away for a symbolic end to the resistance.
“Ultimately, censorship is a struggle between those in power and the ideas of the people,” Arian said. “And for me, the people in power will always win.”
‘Nasir Jani Melawan Lembaga Puaka’ will premiere at the FreedomFilmFest on Dec 12. Tickets are available now.
Watch the trailer here.