Have We Really Lost It?

Here's something I really want to talk about. I've realised that the Malaysian Censorship Board (that's what I'm calling it but I'm not too sure) has been on overdrive lately. I understand their purpose (thanks to Pengajian Am when we learn about all kinds of Governmental Boards in this country), but I don't think they do. Yes, this is Malaysia and we are definitely a more sheltered country compared to others but their idea of censor-worthy words is becoming ridiculous. You do want to sieve out obscenity and vulgarity, I'm all for that. I realise that they're just being protective of our young minds. However, once you start censoring words that are not in itself obscene or vulgar, you lose whatever hold you have left. Here are some examples of words that have been censored (as far as I've realised):

SONGS

1. I Need You Now by Lady Antebellum - whiskey
2. If I Were A Boy by Beyonce - beer
3. Unfaithful by Rihanna - gun
4. I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry - the word 'girl'

TV SHOWS

1. The word 'beach'
2. The word 'virginia'

I'm sure there are more, but I'm just too riled up to remember.

Come on lah! (sometimes adding the 'Lah' at the end gives a sentence more weight. Haha :P ) Do you really think that censoring the words 'beer' and 'whiskey' is going to stop us from drinking? Those words aren't just in songs. In fact, they're everywhere. Supermarkets, hypermarket catalogs, big banners in front of bars. Also, we are not dumb. I'm sure almost all of us found out about beer and whiskey, not from songs, but from somewhere else (family? friends? refrigerators in 7-Eleven? drunk relatives who surely didn't get it from songs?). It's everywhere, and we young ones know about it so what's the point of ruining the flow of a nice song by censoring words that won't make much of a difference?

On top of that, there's the whole 'gun' thing. That particular song is about a girl who is unfaithful to her significant other and she knows that he knows, but he's too much of a gentleman to ask her straight up. She feels that she's killing him slowly with her unfaithfulness, so she sings this; 'I might as well take a gun and put it to his head, get it over with, I don't want to to this anymore.... I don't want to be a murderer'. That's it. So why do you think we won't guess what the word is? And why is it you feel the need to censor the word 'gun' but not 'murderer'? With all that's out there in the world, do you think we won't be able to find other ways to kill someone rather than shooting them? (I'm not saying we're all murderers. I'm just giving an example). Also, a lot of the shows on TV nowadays have guns (Gerak Khas & Cops, anyone?). What do you want us to call them? A weapon? Yeah, that sounds loads better. It doesn't bring up an image of a killing spree at all. (Sorry for the heavy sarcasm, but I feel it's needed here).

Moving on to the word 'girl' (Yes, you can expect a comment about each word I have mentioned above). Yes, I understand that the singer is a woman so when she sings that she kissed a girl, she's implying lesbianism and we don't want that for our children, but isn't this where parenting comes in? My mother raised me to be a good person. I'm not always good but I try my best. I was born into and raised by a Catholic family (not a very prayerful one, granted) and I was taught that homosexuality is unacceptable. However, I was also brought up to understand and adapt to the modern world where homosexuality is starting to be accepted. No, I, personally, do not accept homosexuality but neither do I shun it. They are people too and whatever issues they have, they're going to have to take it up with their maker, not me. So yeah, I disagree with that lifestyle choice but who are we to judge them? If you want to protect your children from it, teach them at home, bring them up to be what you want them to be but do not, do not, shelter them from the world. If anything, take them by the hand, show them the world in all it's glory and darkness and impart you wisdom on them so that they know what is right and what is wrong and how they can choose their own paths. If they go the way you do not like, try your best to bring them home, but it's ultimately up to them. Gone are the days when you can blame a child's choices solely on their parent. We have minds of our own and we do what we want, mostly according to what our parents brought us up to do, but sometimes, those decisions have no connection whatsoever to the ways of our parents. It's what we were taught, but also how that small idea, planted in us by our parents, grow thanks to our own individuality. *Phew* In a nutshell, I don't think that censoring that word is very smart step.

Next, we have 'beach' and 'virginia'. For the first, I think the Censorship Board confused itself with another word of striking resemblance when said aloud (I'm sure you all know the word. If you do not then that's a testimony to all the work put in by the Board). As for the second, I'm quite sure they felt that the first two syllables were dangerous. Before I go any further, I'd like to draw your attention to the MUET (Malaysian University English Test) that all us 6th Formers and University graduates have to pass. It states in the course aims that 'all candidates should be able to derive the meaning of words from context'. Now, let's get back to the censored word 'beach'. When someone says, "Let's go the the beach. The sand and sun will be good for you", I'm sure we all know that what they mean is the 'beach'. Alas, I am mistaken. The censorship board thinks that it's the otherword. So much for deriving the meaning from context. And then there's the word 'virginia' which is obviously a proper noun (kata nama khas, in BM), and is most probably a name of a person or place. But no, the censorship board feels that this noun is too dangerous to be displayed in full no matter how proper it is. Therefore, they decided to silence the first two syllables and leave us only with the 'nia' sound. Oh well, I guess we'll all be wondering what she meant when she said, "Let's go visit mother at *****nia *****".

Gosh! This is so enraging. How can the people who work in the Malaysian Censorship Board be so clueless?? Aren't they all qualified? Aren't the senior authorities qualified? Where is their common sense?

Go ahead and censor words like the F and B and whatever other alphabet they start with for being vulgar, obscene, rude and for ruining the flow of good, mature conversations but please do your research first because censoring a word like 'virginia' just because you don't want you child to hear the word 'virgin' or the word 'beach' because it sounds too similar to the other variety is just plain dumb.

Maybe we should all retake our MUET.