reduced and recycled

I’ve been watching the NST witch-hunt from the sidelines, wondering where it was going. I was shocked into full-blown anger when I read the NST’s front page today when it announced it was presented with a show-cause letter. It’s pretty funny how Jeff Ooi has capitalized on this mess, and how those calling for a ban on NST for religious insensitivity have argued.

So very much like a frenzied mob.

Drunk on the success of wielding the power of petty religion.

Then I suddenly read of a champion of alternative media weighing in with crude kindergarten glee. How interesting, and how truly revealing. The term “non sequitor” says much; in logic, it simply refers to an argument that does not follow from its premisses. In comedy, as in life, it appears that a certain absurdist logic is always in play.

Was the cartoon offensive?
Let’s word the question differently - more might be revealed. If the cartoon was offensive, how was it offensive? A gleeful artist-for-hire sits with a placard offering to draw caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. Taken out of context, it appears no more than a picture of a man offering, for a price, to give offense.

There is a wealth of meaning to plumb from that one little snapshot, I think. The cartoonists who drew the caricatures did so when an author couldn’t find anyone to draw pictures depicting Muhammad in a learned work, if I recall correctly. Was it a favour to a hapless writer? No artist would dare draw pictures of Muhammad for said writer, and as the events have borne out, for good reason. Were the caricatures drawn to mock this fear?

A little sentimentalist non sequitor from me, with no claim to a higher truth:

George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.

Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that’s what happened. Hey, we can’t even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throat or somethin’. They’re scared, man.

George Hanson: They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to ‘em.

Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.

George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.

Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That’s what it’s all about.

George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what’s it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.

Billy: Well, it don’t make ‘em runnin’ scared.

George Hanson: No, it makes ‘em dangerous.

You might remember that bit from Easy Rider, and you’ll also know what happens to George Hanson right after that little scene. What would a George-Hanson-cartoonist fear in this climate? Fear of a religion? How can you fear ideas?

Or were those caricatures drawn, were those cartoonists choosing to give offense, to mock the fear of the sword - the fear, it appears, not of the religion, but of the people purporting to adhere to that religion. The cartoonist of that now-infamous little sketch printed by the NST must have thought so, since the cartoon is captioned with a little snippet about fear. Fear of or for the cartoonist?

For a comic strip so reflexively titled, the reaction of some quarters to its throw-away gems merely confirms the sheer weight of its cartoon’s truth: that one who wishes to caricature the prophet Muhammad is one to be feared - feared just as Salman Rushdie was so feared. A person who has no respect for the claims of religion, has in turn no fear of committing sacrilege against religion; such a person is truly free.

That cartoon, to me, mocks the uproar surrounding the caricatures, and gently mocks the muslim public of the fear of sacrilege, and is, in brilliant fashion, a self-mockery of cartoonists who have now, it appears, come under the spotlight and who have now, it appears, been accorded more power than what the reality suggests.

It appears Muslims the world over have given over much power to cartoonists to offend them. How quaint.

So was the cartoon offensive? In my opinion, only insofar as Muslims have allowed these cartoonists to offend them.

Is the NST witch-hunt justified?
Well, yes, I suppose; after all, the government shut down Guangming Daily, forced the Sarawak Tribune out of circulation - so it is therefore justified to harass the NST. At least, that’s what some people seem to think.

Just as fundamentalist Muslims have appeared to have spoken louder than the sheep-like moderates amongst them, I think it’s no surprise how such an innocuous cartoon can be co-opted for agendas quite unknown.

The whole situation played out like a scene right out of “Salon Kitty”; a group of patriotic, German women forced to do the most unnatural in the name of the Reich. PAS, ever ready to flash the Muslim-Malay card, did so again as expected.

Some other concerned citizens (dear God, it played out like scenes from “Pleasantville”) joined in the fray. It was like watching a modern-day Temperance Society coalesce into shape right before my eyes. It was the fulfillment of a far more effective, far more organized placard-wielding demostration to rival MCCBCHS’s candlelight vigil a hundred times over, much earlier.

I’m sure the government, not wishing to appear less Islamic than the rest, was motivated by prudence and forebearance, and had deliberated the matter at length. In a matter of days, NST was called to “show cause” for the Non Sequitor cartoon, with the usual truck-load of ministers offering commiserations and the invaluable benefit of their hindsight.

I’d rather not offer an opinion on whether the witch-hunt thus far is justified or not. I think what certain vendettas have bred over the past few days has made for a more interesting study.

Non sequitor
Of course, all of the considerations of ‘freedom’ is just so much fluff, because in the real world here in Malaysia, the witch-hunt hasn’t been about broad abstracts and fundamental inquiries into the nature of freedom. The witch-hunt has been motivated by the more gritty reality of human cupidity.

And that, I think, is tragic; a witch-hunt, as with any mob, operates with a strange sort of logic that resists reason. For all the reactionary fire, I wonder how much detractors of “Jalan Riong” enjoy bedding down with Malaysian Islamists hell-bent, it appears, on pushing the Islamic agenda to the forefront.

Related links:
Non sequitor, comic-non-grata
NST and unsettling noise in UMNO
J for Jeff, V for Vendetta: The Cartoon PCR
The interesting thing about cartoons
Jackpot! Cartoons Part Deux