Summary
The infamous ‘Negarakuku’ uproar in 2007, in light of celebrating malaysia’s 50th anniversary is no stranger especially to Malaysian citizens. In the article by Daniel Chandranayagam posted on GlobalVoicesAdvocacy entitled ‘Malaysia: YouTube rapper under investigation’, it discussed the controversy in which the song has brought. Police questioned Wee Meng Chee, aka Namewee, on the matter of his rap song which featured the Malaysian national anthem “Negaraku”, in the chorus.
The rap song with Chinese lyrics was believed to purportedly touch on police abuses, corruption and racial discrimination. According to Wee, the police questioned him on the song and his purpose for making the video which was being investigated under the Sedition Act. This subsequently led to the public apology made by Wee last year for the video that received more than million views.
Wee was under severe criticism for mocking the national anthem and making offensive statements that may be labeled as ‘racial slurs’.
Personal Opinion
However, after watching the video for the first time, I perceived the video to be a true reflection of Malaysia’s current situation instead of looking at it as a mockery to the nation. As mentioned by Walsh (2006), understanding the cultural and social contexts contributes to making meaning out of a given text. She also added that we link what we witness to previous experiences to ‘fill the gaps’ in better comprehending a given text (Walsh, 2006, p.113). Therefore, it can be said that Wee’s controversial video can only be truly understood and comprehended by a person who is familiar with the Malaysia political scene of rampant bribery, racial inequality and so on.
References
Chandranayagam, D 2008, ‘Malaysia: YouTube rapper under investigation’, GlobalVoicesAdvocacy, viewed on 12 November 2008, http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/23/malaysia-youtube-rapper-under-investigations/
‘Negarakuku’ 2007, YouTube.Com, viewed on 12 November 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF7fbQdBoYw
Personal Opinion
However, after watching the video for the first time, I perceived the video to be a true reflection of Malaysia’s current situation instead of looking at it as a mockery to the nation. As mentioned by Walsh (2006), understanding the cultural and social contexts contributes to making meaning out of a given text. She also added that we link what we witness to previous experiences to ‘fill the gaps’ in better comprehending a given text (Walsh, 2006, p.113). Therefore, it can be said that Wee’s controversial video can only be truly understood and comprehended by a person who is familiar with the Malaysia political scene of rampant bribery, racial inequality and so on.
References
Chandranayagam, D 2008, ‘Malaysia: YouTube rapper under investigation’, GlobalVoicesAdvocacy, viewed on 12 November 2008, http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/09/23/malaysia-youtube-rapper-under-investigations/
‘Negarakuku’ 2007, YouTube.Com, viewed on 12 November 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF7fbQdBoYw
Walsh, M 2006, ‘”Textual shift”: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts’, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37
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