Thursday, 14 January 2016

A rose tinted view?



Whicker’s World Classic Full Documentary: Penang
I Haven't Taken My Own Shoes Off for 45 Years...! (1976)

One cannot imagine how much Penang has changed in 40 years. When we view this documentary, we can see how much the skyline is obscured by buildings and there is not much of a horizon to see.

Alan Whicker gives a rare glimpse of Penang that I had first-hand experience, Penang in 1976, as a teenager trying to make sense of things around me. The documentary looks at the island of Penang, of a third world country, from the rose-tinted lenses of the British man. His main highlight seems to be to show the Thaipusam celebrations, a self-mutilating theatrics of penance and gratitude to the Gods, as described by him.  

His first three guests include an ex-civil servant, Cunningham Brown, who decided to stay behind in the comforts of the tropics after Independence. He still has a cushy life as a king, cared for by the natives. A Scottish doctor, Dr Reed Tweedy, came to Malaya in the 1930s joining the bandwagon of Brits who wanted to be in the thick of actions and the inflated high pay in the exotic East. When there was an opening for a post of a Medical Assistant in British Malaya, he jumped in, after leaving his practice in London. After living through the thick and thin of times, the thick of the jungle through the World War and the thin of times as a prisoner under the Japanese, he is comfortably very much at home in tropical Penang. He lives as how the British Raj lived during the colonial times, with servants to serve and clean. He is treated as demigod amongst the Indian poor of Penang. He runs a dispensary, filled with archaic treatment modalities with a condescending attitude and plenty of placebo!

Mrs Daphne Jones, a former headmistress, and her sister find joy in caring for the animals on the island. They go to great lengths to feed and treat unwanted animals. These people feel very much at home and may feel awkward to be with their own kind back in the UK.

The second part of the documentary give a rare interview with Tunku Abdul Rahman as he relaxes by the Penang Turf Club and cruises on his motorboat by the beach. More street Thaipusam party and more reels of the ordinary people. The then Governor, Saadon Jubir, finally takes the narrator around town in his imported American automobile, accompanied by his outriders, in what appears like a blatant disregard to protocols, driving around town for a private business!

At the end of the day, the take home message seems to be that the British tamed the natives, brought them education, civilisation, governance and development. They paved the way for democratic rule and protected them from communism with apparently with purest of intentions. The interviewee alerted that the country would plunge into mayhem if the clean incorruptible demeanour of the British were not continued by the ruling government.

Are they looking purely at the nostalgic good old day through the white men’s rose tinted glasses blanking off all the atrocities and the injustices that were swept under the carpet in the name of honour of the Queen and natural justice of the ‘civilised world’?

P.S. A British Raj official could not take off his shoes at a Gandhi memorial because he had not taken off his shoes in 45 years! His coolie had taken it of for him.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, a British perspective. I was in Penang in the early 1960s. As I remember defending the country against the CTs then against Indonesia. British atrocities in Malaya?? Which? Suggest you look at the thousands killed by the Japanese in Malaya during their short occupation there.

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