I am writing this letter on behalf of local composers and artistes of Tamil songs. We believe that songs by Malaysian talents should be given at least 50 per cent airing on Astro’s THR Raaga and RTM’s Minnal radio stations in the country.

As a composer/artiste, I really hope the Malaysian government will be able to impose strict guidelines on this issue so that local songs are given more preferenece than foreign songs on THR and Minnal.

The Government should draw a line for foreign songs especially on these two radio stations. We are not anti-foreign songs but if local songs are not even given a chance in Malaysia, how can any Malaysian Indian artiste try and break into the international level? Songs from Indian artistes are already well covered on the international scene.

I would like to relate how local artistes from the Indian community are discriminated against by THR.

a) Local song composers and artistes are told that our songs must be submitted to THR under a registered recording company label.

b) According to THR’s website it will then take two weeks for them to approve or reject a song. It is interesting to know how they approve a song.

First, they send a song to be rated to 18,000 listeners. Those 18,000 listeners will make a decision on which song to play on the radio station.

We would like to make a point here, not all the 18,000 people are well versed in music, lyrics and expression of a song. They are just listeners. Many songs are rejected because of a low rating.

There is an important point which we would like to make here – there are 194,400 likes in THR’s Facebook page. However, out of 100,000 people, we can see an average of 60 “Like” for their postings and about five or six people commenting on their postings.

If out of 100,000 people they are only getting an average of 60 likes, then what kind of response will they get from 18,000 people? Not everyone has time to spend on just listening and rating local songs.

We believe it is a total discrimination by THR against local Indian composers and artistes.

c) When a song is approved or rejected they don’t even give any answer through any communication to the related composer/artiste. If a song is rejected they should at least give a reason so that the composer/artiste can improve.

d) All broadcasters should follow the ministry’s guidelines when getting approval for a radio licence. The percentage of local artistes should be taken into consideration because it is a guideline set by the government.

e) THR is promoting Indian movie songs even before the release of the CDs or movies. The Indian artistes do not have to go through the same procedures that Malaysian artistes do.

This includes:

• having to fill forms which are downloaded from their website;
• having to make a CD cover for every single song;
• having to send a CD by registered post to THR – with lyrics attached and which should include details of the artistes involved in the song,

No India artistes have to go through all the procedures mentioned above. Local artistes have to go through such hassles to get a chance on Malaysian radio while those from India have a free ride on the station.

f) For the past 20 years, Malaysian artistes have been fighting to get a chance to play their songs on Malaysian radio.

According to THR management, they play two to three Malaysian songs every hour.

That means local artists are getting less than a 10 pe rcent chance of airtime in an hour. How will the government promote Malaysian talent when the local radio and TV stations restrict local songs and talents?

Those two or three songs are played every day after 16 years of struggle. Do we have to struggle another 20 years to get another 8 per cent chance?

THR is not following the government regulation, which is 70 per cent air time for local artistes and 30 per cent for foreign artistes. This is the law which was agreed to by THR management before getting their licence.

Also, songs from India sometimes contain some vulgar language are aired without any filtering but local songs are 100 per cent filtered.

Songs by AR Rahman, Illayaraja and other India composers will be on air the day after they release their audio in India.

But local composers/artistes need to wait three to four weeks just to get the result of their song submission. It is pure discrimination.

On Sept 2, 2016, many local Indian creative talents protested in front of Astro building. Do we have to go through all this before the related ministry opens their eyes to look into this matter?

Saravanan is a Tamil music composer/lyrics writer.

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