Apa Khabar Orang Kampung

(from left) Albert Hue, Hardesh Singh, Amir Muhammad and Liew Seng Tat.

Interviewing Pak Sukor.

'Crane shot' following Ludin to his banana plantation.

A few minutes before the cock-fight.

At the village cemetery.

Being escorted to the 10th Regiment's secret tunnel.

Photos by Danny Lim.

Get Apa khabar orang kampung DVD here!

Get Apa khabar orang kampung DVD here!

Title: Apa Khabar Orang Kampung

English title: Village People Radio Show
Year of Completion: 2007 (world premiere February)
Duration: 72 min
Genre: Documentary
Languages: Malay & Thai

Writer/Director: Amir Muhammad
Camera: Albert Hue
Sound: Hardesh Singh
Still Photography: Danny Lim
Editor: Akashdeep Singh
Assistant Director: Liew Seng Tat
Thai Radio Actor: Bront Palarae
Producer: Tan Chui Mui
Executive Producer: James Lee

Synopsis
In the propaganda war against the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), much was made of the fact that the party comprised ethnic Chinese who adopted an atheistic political philosophy. This tactic proved effective as the country was mainly Malay and Muslim. However, a large and influential division of the CPM comprised Malay-Muslims. This documentary is a portrait of life in a tranquil South Thailand village, complete with mosque, where the retired members live in exile. Recollections of the decades-long guerrilla war are interspersed with a fictional Thai radio drama.

Longer Synopsis

The precise role of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in the history of the nation is still a controversial and hotly contested one. It was a player in the anti-colonial struggle against occupying Japanese forces (from 1942-5) and later the returning British administration (1945-1957). However, its continual commitment to armed struggle in the post-Independence era depleted much public support.

In the propaganda war, the government made much of the fact that the CPM comprised mainly ethnic Chinese members and adopted an 'atheistic' political philosophy. As the nation is mainly Malay-Muslim, these were effective scare tactics in dissuading the population from having any sympathy towards the communists.

However, a large and influential division of the CPM, the 10th Regiment, comprised Malay-Muslim members. Many of its leaders such as Abdullah CD, Rashid Maidin, Abu Samah, Shamsiah Fakeh, Kamaruzzaman Teh and Suriani Abdullah were iconic figures of rebellion and resistance. These men and women had no trouble reconciling radical left ideology with Islamic faith.

The 10th Regiment began a strategic retreat across the border into South Thailand in the mid-1950s. Many of the members would not see their home villages again for five decades.

From secret jungle hide-outs, they conducting guerrilla warfare against the armed forces of the day. When the government of China began diplomatic relations with Malaysia in the early 1980s, aid from Beijing stopped and life became more difficult. A formal ceasefire was signed in 1989.

This documentary takes a look at the present-day lives of the 10th Regiment figures who are still living in a village in South Thailand. (Others had either passed away or opted to return to Malaysia). They earn a living by farming and are no longer engaged in politics.

Almost everyone in the village is either above the age of 60 or below 15. This is because the middle generation often had to be sent out for adoption as children would have been inconvenient in secret guerrilla hideouts.

The children in the village will grow up as Thai citizens and soon the emotional link to Malaysia will be lost. School lessons are in Thai rather than Malay. Life here is tranquil and slow-moving; it rains often and the chickens roam freely.

Through interviews with the elders, we hear of how life in the jungle was like: the food, the battles, the acupuncture. But the narrative keeps breaking up. There are audio and visual disruptions. History refuses to be contained or told so neatly.

In the background, a Thai radio soap opera is heard. It tells the story of a king who suspects his pregnant wife of adultery, and so jails her ...

Director's Statement

When we shot Lelaki Komunis Terakhir (The Last Communist) in late 2005, the unrest in South Thailand deprived us a chance to visit the village comprising Malay-Muslim members of the Communist Party of Malaya. So we resolved to pay them a visit and do a separate documentary on them when we could.

The history of Malaysia, like any other nation, is not served by shutting out voices that do not conform to a hegemonic telling. Otherwise, we would end up with a history of amnesia. This might be convenient to the powers of the day but it will be disastrous for our collective imagination.

As it is now, our politicians reap the benefits of a demagogic racialised discourse that puts each ethnic group within neat, fixed, epistemic boundaries. But what if, for example, there is more than one or even two types of "Malay-Muslim"?

I sought to present this sense of marginal and contested historiography through the stylistic means of breaking up the picture and audio into random disruptions. To show that what is there, will not always be there, and it is up to us to excavate, decipher, extrapolate.

We had fun in shooting this documentary in a kind of 'international broadcast' style often consumed in bourgeois households with satellite TV. But then it had to be agitated and 'problemmatised' in the telling, as the point is for the viewer to not be so passive.

As Lelaki Komunis Terakhir has been banned in Malaysia, some would wonder about the fate of Apa Khabar Orang Kampung. This is something beyond my control. The people I interviewed are in their late 70s or 80s. At the risk of seeming morbid, it was now or never.

By sheer coincidence, the person who appears most often in Apa Khabar Orang Kampung, 86-year old Pak Kassim, passed away 3 weeks after the interview, the only long one he had ever given. The documentary is dedicated to his memory.

Get Apa khabar orang kampung DVD here!