KUALA LUMPUR, May 3 — The old and religious men within Puspal — the agency responsible for approving concert permits — are to blame for the disconnect between Putrajaya’s vision for the entertainment industry and reality on the ground, said Sepang International Circuit chief executive Datuk Razlan Razali.
In an interview with The Sunday Star, Razlan said the committee members are damaging Malaysia’s global reputation as a good destination for live events, with many major artistes bypassing the country during their Asia-Pacific tours.
He pointed out that Malaysians can forget about seeing major artistes such as Madonna, Shakira or Lady Gaga as religious objections would be raised even during the pre-approval stage
Such religious considerations were already in place even before the updated and stricter guidelines by federal Islamic authority Jakim were publicised, he added.
“Many of the committee members are over 50 and religious people. What do they know when it comes to Katy Perry, Taylor Swift or Jennifer Lopez?” said Razlan, who is also acting president for Arts, Live Festival and Events Association (Alife) that represents concert organisers and stakeholders.
Despite the Malaysian Department of Islamic Development’s (Jakim) assurance that its guidelines are not binding, Razlan insisted that Jakim still has the final say over the approval.
“The Puspal committee includes Jakim and, at the end of the day, the religious authority will call the shots,” said Razlan.
“No one dares go against Jakim when they bring up something that is supposedly religiously sensitive or un-Islamic. If they bring up the fact that an artiste is ‘anti-Islamic’, the chairperson is put in a spot — should we approve this artiste? No one wants to be called un-Islamic.
“And the other committee members are also left in a bind as soon as Jakim raises an issue that is sensitive to religion. It is difficult for anyone to go against it in the fear of being called un-Islamic,” he admitted.
Razlan also urged that religion be kept out of the concert permit approval process, since foreign artistes will never be accepted if it comes down to religious aspects.
“We need to keep religion out of it — it is a thin line, what is Islamic or not — so we need to take it out of the equation totally,” said Razlan, warning that these guidelines might soon “creep” into other events such as sports.
“Will we be seeing sports events in a different light where males and females sit separately and our national players [cover their modesty] during squash or badminton tournaments? How will this impact festivals, theatres, weddings and government events?
“Where do we draw the line? Who is overseeing this whole space?” he asked.
Jakim recently introduced updated guidelines to entertainment which, among others, urges gender segregation among the audience, and prohibits humour that will provoke “excessive laughter”.
According to Jakim, the new list is meant to assist the authorities in ensuring that entertainment programmes are based on the Islamic faith and codes, and moral values.
