Chocolate - Yasmin Ahmad

Let's take a break from Indonesia talk to pay tribute to the late Yasmin Ahmad.

Her last piece was released yesterday. A short film, 'Chocolate' , less than 5 minutes, but it captured so much on that short piece of film.

If you're Malaysian and haven't watch it, I highly recommend it. It's only 3 minutes after all.

But there's one thing that annoys me.

See, Yasmin was all about unity. She saw the thing troubling every Malaysian, something so suppressed nobody would even whisper about it in public, in fear of the consequences of doing so. Something that's amplifying our differences. Yes, let's get straight to the point. I'm talking about races. Yes, we do talk about it. Let's be honest. We talk about it when the other races are not around. Every race does that. Maybe UMNO dares talk about it loud and clear, but the rest of us, we feel it but we don't talk about it. Nobody likes it - maybe except for politicians who use the fear to propel their careers. But no other sane human being like to amplify differences to the point that it brews anger, frustration, disappointment, hatred, and all other negative emotions.

The thing is all these emotions were so suppressed. Unheard of anywhere public. Not in the media. Even bloggers don't dare write that much about it. So when Yasmin Ahmad created Chocolate, which showed in some parts, our differences, a lot of people, a lot of Chinese people (as shown on facebook) jump on the band wagon and say things like 'Aha, a Malay has finally seen our suffering!' or 'Oh my, Yasmin is a genius for capturing how we are so not welcomed in our countries', or 'This is so true, that's the government's attitude, this is not our land'.

I.hate.this.

Hate is a strong word, but i hate to see her last piece being misused. I hate to see them say things she would have hated.

She wanted to see unity, to see 'hey, they maybe of a different race, but they are just like me'. She wanted us to see our similarities despite of our differences. She wanted us to see the cause of our differences and not amplify it but tackle it. She wanted us to see that Malaysia could be different. She wanted us to see hope.

Can't you see?

If you don't believe a word i say, go check out the Making of Chocolate.