I refer to the Malaysiakini report 'Datuk' Shah Rukh Khan will boost tourism: official .
One would not think that even in the giving honorary titles from the royalties and state in Malaysia, we practice a ‘divide-and-give’ policy.
One would note that a Hindi movie star was given prominence when so many Tamil movie stars with even greater following amongst the local ethnic Indians in the country have been sidestepped.
If one follows the movie scene in the Tamil film world, many of its super and upcoming stars have made Malaysia their number one shooting spot because of our impressive world-class infrastructure and our local support for the movie world. We have also been noted to have one of the best Tamil song remix talents in the industry and the South Indian film industry has taken cognisance of it.
Despite all this, our leaders still feel that Shah Rukh Khan is worthy of an honour when there are so many Tamil movie stars before him who have promoted Malaysia in a very big way. The question is why no Datuk- ships for them?
It can be easily said and concluded that the largest ethnic race in the country prefers Bollywood as opposed to Mollywood (Tamil film world) because the former sounds more akin to their preference in religious similarities as opposed to the latter who are mostly Hindus. Thus, we seem so embedded in our beliefs that even when it comes to proffering honorary titles, we see them in terms of race and religion.
We don't see them as friends who have taken pains to come to Malaysia and constantly shoot films here. It is an open and known fact that there are more Tamil movie directors and film stars who have made Malaysia proud by making our country their choice location for their movies and yet Shah Rukh Khan gets it because he can sway the Malay crowd.
If we take into account the number of Tamil movie stars who should get a Datuk-ship, the likes of names like Prashanth,Vijay,Vikram, Jeyam Ravi, Prakash Raj, Sunder C Asin, Simran,Devayani, Dhanush and many more should also deserve a title like Shah Rukh Khan. But since they don't sway the crowd that matters, the efforts made by these artistes are just ignored.
Our leaders have not even considered our local talent in the form of Yogi B and Nachitra, Mr G of Lock Up, Shasi the Don and Chakra Sonic for the fantastic talent and ability in working with the Tamil film world to make music that is simply fantastic and contemporary. Don't these Anak Malaysia deserve a Datuk-ship?
We need to think as to where we are heading after 51 years of being a sovereign nation. We only come together when there is a common need to but after that need is satisfied, we go back to the basics of divide and rule.
We might never really unite even if we were to be together for another five decades and that is why many good and talented people are leaving our shores to benefit other nations with their expertise. When they succeed there, we then shout and scream that there are Malaysians! But what’s the use?
The younger generation is not going to accept this anymore, they will slowly start - as we are already seeing now - to move their talent and ability to places where they are appreciated more whilst our leaders will still continue to sing the same old tune to us.
