Despacito, Fifty Shades Darker and more censorship fiasco

 

Yesterday RTM announced that it has banned Despacito to be played on all their media channel. Censorship has become a massive issue in Malaysia lately, and so is this action acceptable or is this another Beauty and the Beast ? Hit the jump to find out my thought.

Before I started, let me preface few things. First I never even once listen to this song but, I’m well aware the popularity and the meaning of its original lyric. Secondly, I’m not gonna rant about theweakness of Malaysia Board of Cencorship (well maybe a little bit) again, but more of touch on my personal view of the censorship itself.

Immediately after the news broke, people commented that RTM is a fool because thinking majority people still listen to them. Well, they are certainly right because if you want to listen to this song, just tune in to the other thousand other radio out there or simply open your Spotify playlist, but what these people don’t understand is that they have taken their responsibility to first make it public that this song will not be played on the media service again and followed it up with proper action. What they did there is what Islam called as 'nahi munkar’ aka stopping bad deeds.

There’s a Hadith that stated Rasullullah SAW has said,
" Whoever that had saw a bad deeds being done, stop it with your hand, if you're incapable (with hand), stop it with your mouth, if you’re incapable (with mouth), stop it with heart. But know that (with heart) is the weakest of faith." 
In this case, RTM did their responsibility with their hands by banning the song, and use their mouths announcing publicly for the attention of the other media and people that they can’t control. After that it’s up to that specific person whether to follow or to ignore.

I’ll admit I can’t control myself at times (I’ve watched The Homemaiden, you got to wonder how the hell that movie shown on the plane uncensored), but we as person, especially Muslim must try to avoid things that lead to bad influence.

Some other people also mentioned that it’s just a lyric. True, but remember that AI, Tay that become a sexist,facist, Nazis symphetizer within hours ? External element is the strongest influence and kids can’t differentiate, before you know it, they find it fine to rape a piece of cardboard. That’s why intervention is important. People blame all that perverts incapable keeping their lust, but stop and think what is the cause and more importantly what are we doing to avoid it to not only happen again but not happening to the younglings as well.

Then what makes this different than Beauty and the Beast ? Explicitness. That infamous LGBTQ scene was a blink and miss. But that song barely have subtlety in its lyric. This doesn't mean I agree with the Censorship Board especially when you are busy banning this song to protect the youth but let Fifty Shades Darker available on Astro First. Again, I’m fine if it's subtle because the young one definitely don’t understand it and the when you got it as an adult, you can think better already. The Censorship Board on the other hand, stop being reactive and start being proactive.

In the end,this is another fine line to walk.But I'm actually agreeing with them in their action. That being said, I have no power to stop anybody from listening to that song. Everybody is a leader in their lives, the simplest being to lead yourself. So, I’ve gave my piece, now you have to decide.

So what do you think of the banning action ? Agree ? Disagree ? Sound off your thought in the comment section. Stay tuned for my SDCC recap next week, and possibly a review of Fairy Tale finale by following and liking Comikrew Studio right here or on Facebook. Don't forget to subscribe to my comic on Tapastic and finally follow and hit me up on Twitter.