Anger over 'New Village' film

THE nod given by the National Film Development Corporation Malayisa (Finas) for the screening of local film The New Village was highlighted by Awang Selamat in Mingguan Malaysia.
He wrote that Malaysians were too cautious over the screening of the film Tanda Putera to the extent that the movie had been put on hold several times following protests from various groups representing the Chinese community.
However, he said it was ironic for Tanda Putera, which supposedly depicted the historical facts behind the May 13 racial riots, to come under pressure for being “racist” when certain groups had managed to get away with producing The New Village.
The columnist questioned how the film could have been approved by the authorities, particularly in view of the coming Merdeka Day celebration, when it allegedly glorified the exploits of the Malayan People Anti-Japanese Army, which had ties to the Malayan Communist Party.
“Many of our security forces personnel were killed and maimed due to the communists, who are now recognised and glorified as heroes. Why does the producer of the New Village film want to re-write history?” he wrote.
The columnist said he believed that this was part of the effort to recognise the struggle of the communist party and its leaders, especially Chin Peng.
He said that it did not make sense for the film to be screened before Tanda Putera which had long been completed and which, according to him, should be shown as a way to strengthen patriotism and the need to maintain harmony.

> It was reported in Metro Ahad that sexy starlet Lana Nordin, 34, – once dubbed Malaysia’s Pamela Anderson – had denied being embroiled in yet another controversial incident after a picture of her supposedly caught during a raid at an entertainment outlet surfaced.
Denying that it was her, Lana, whose real name is Mazlina Hasan Nordin, said that the woman in the photograph only “looked like her”.
“Why should the photograph of me be taken from the back? Why not take a front view photograph of me?” she said.
She added that they should state which police station she was supposedly taken to after the raid.
“In fact, on the day of the alleged incident, I was at home with the flu,” she said.
She said her parents had asked her to sue those responsible for the allegations.
“But I have thought about it and asked them who should I sue,” she said, adding that it would be a waste of time trying to identify the culprits to take them to court.
Lana, who was criticised for her role in Orang Minyak vs Pontianak, in which she had supposedly used her breasts as an “object of humour”, said she considered controversies to be a form of publicity.
Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this > sign, it denotes a separate news item.