Producer Pete Teo, the brains behind the 'Undilah' public service announcement (PSA), has described the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Comission's (MCMC) explanation of its directive to broadcasters not to air his PSA as "outrageous".

pete teo story This, Teo says, is because the MCMC had stopped the PSA broadcast even before it had been aired.

"So far, only ntv7 has broadcast the one-minute plus version as a news item, we will only be talking to TV stations next week (about airing it as a full advertisement)," he said.

The MCMC had earlier today, in a statement, said that the Film Censorship Board had yet to approve the clip, thus the directive for its withdrawal .

Teo, however, was puzzled about the MCMC directive when he had not applied to the Film Censorship Board for one in the first place.

"We haven't got approval because we haven't applied for it. There is no need to apply for it when we haven't even spoken to the broadcasters.

"The question is this, why is the MCMC issuing a pre-emptive directive asking broadcasters not to use the PSA before we even speak to the broadcasters?" he said.

'Equal representation no-no'

The four-and-a-half minute music video features celebrities such as Namewee and Afdlin Shauki Aksan and politicians from both side of the divide, including deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah, urging Malaysians to vote.

Nurul Izzah in undilah video However, Teo, who is also behind the 15Malaysia video series, said that the directive may be due to MCMC's unhappiness with Umno MP Tengku Razaleigh's PSA introduction, stating that the country had problems.

"Sources from the the (information) ministry are saying that they objected to Ku Li saying that we have problems in the country," he said.

They are also unhappy that there is equal representation of government and opposition in the video but that is the point of democracy, he added.

Earlier this week, the MCMC was reported to have directed the country's two largest television networks, Astro and Media Prima, not to use Teo's PSA which was launched on Sept 16, chalking up more than 150,000 views on YouTube at last count.

Teo said that he and his team are still mulling over "a range of options" to proceed and the public will be informed in due course.

Watch Undilah video l 4.38 min

Undilah video 'not yet approved' by film censors