MORE ON MICHELLE YEOH - OF 'MALAYSIAN BORN'

The attached photo was taken by yours truly back in 2005 Formula 1 Gala Dinner in KLCC Convention Center. She was one amongst other stars who walked the red carpet that night - Jackie Chan, Black Eyed Peas and few others. Unfortunately, the one I’ve been looking forward to did not make it to the red carpet, but took the other way in instead to avoid the crowd - Micheal Schumacher.

I was merely inches away from the goddess herself, (growing up in the 80s watching in amazement she and Cynthia Rothrock in VHS copy of Yes Madam) If the photo was taken after the invention of the selfie culture, there might have been an ugly head protruding at the lower left or lower right corner of the photo for selfies. (plus with AI now, theres a trend of generating videos of someone going around taking selfie with famous people. So called “high tech”, yet such fakery is normalised. Anyways..) Plus the photo was not taken with a smartphone back then. It was with my Fuji FinePix s602. It looked ‘professional’ enough, the event guards let me through into the VIP reception area mistaken me for someone from the media.

Anyways, here I would like to talk about the topic of ‘Malaysian born’, something that I’ve written before yet watching the coverage of ‘I Lite U’ yesterday night and with the presence of Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh being awarded for her success winning the Oscar, triggered me to write about it again. It is about the global success achieved by these ‘Malaysian born’ in their respective industry, in this case, the film industry, like James Wan and Henry Golding (please help me add to the list. Are there any Malays to be added to the list or are they comfy enough in becoming ‘jaguh kampung?’ The legendary Ibrahim Pendek, Bront Palarae?).

The question that always lingers in my head is - would they have succeeded if they had stayed in Malaysia? And why there is a culture of riding these ‘Malaysian born’ success when the country had contributing nothing towards it, except perhaps the location of their birth and citizenship? (How many locally produced film has Michelle Yeoh in it?) And what is the price of the Datoship or the TanSriship given to these public figures? Perhaps that has obliged her to make that stand on Najib Razak back then? But we can’t blame her because, like any full time politician, she is an Oscar-winning actress, isn’t she. They ought to put up a show on a screen for us.

Another ‘Malaysian born’ topic goes into the taboo category. It is about the scandal involving the ‘pemain warisan’ who allegedly was born in Malaysia, which suddenly wins them the rights to play in the national team. Even if we disregard the ‘invisible hand’ episode in producing the fake documents, there is another question lingers - aren’t there any legit Malaysian football talent for us to tap into and be nurtured into the national line up?

The same question can be applied to the film industry. Would anyone who grew up from the local scene be able to reach the same level of success as Michelle Yeoh or James Wan or Henry Golding? I've met many local minds from the industry and I think they have so much potential yet - most if not all of them being presented with the allegorical brick wall, which literally stops them from going further. How would one who was stopped by what Nam Ron’s depicted as the ‘Big Brother’ in his film Gedebe and ‘Gatekeeper’ in Jalan Pintas feels upon looking at how Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh is being celebrated? And also in the recently viral AI generated Anime-styled animation produced by RTM entitled ‘Cinta Malaysia, selamanya’ yet totally disregard local animation talents?

This actually closely related to the nations ‘brain-drain’. We know stories of ‘Malaysian born’ who got straight As in all subjects yet being denied access to higher education in the local universities, mostly because the incumbent racial quota. Remember around 2 years ago? Our new PM who was supposed to bring hope for changes, was seen canceling out a question from a young Indian student when she asked about possible changes in the quota system into a merit-based system. The ‘Big Brother’ and the ‘Gatekeeper’ still exist.

Mahathir recently said that (I paraphraised) - that the Malays can compete with the other races in any field. - If thats so, can we get rid of the ‘tongkat’ and the incumbent NEP and compete fair and square, to proof his point? - I guess not.

As what Winston Churchill said, real statemen thinks of the next generation, while politician thinks of the next election.

So these rejected non-Malays migrated to other countries and many years afterwards started making headlines and suddenly, the recognition comes to them as ‘Malaysian born’ scientists, thinkers, academics etc. And then in 2012 there was a call for them to come home by Najib Razak and as recently by Zahid Hamidi in 2025 to ‘help build the nation’. (as if the local talent has been laying back and scratching balls all these while lah)

Some are being offered high salaries and perks (like the MM2H programme for expats etc) - something that could be awarded to local talents? I know of some tales of these talents finally came back to the motherland and tries to initiate a reform, yet again, being met with the ‘Big Brothers’ and ‘Gatekeepers’ - ‘coz you know, they have keep the ‘Ayahanda’s dapur berasap’ lah, kan. The recent change of government are just mainly at the top, the ones lower down the hierarchy remains of the same people.

I have a CG artist friend who recently (and voluntarily) came back to ‘help build the nation’ but the industry trend now does not recognise or award experience (coz its expensive). They are all in a “cost-cutting” practive now and rather hire a low salary fresh graduates but pressing them to produce ‘international level’ quality end product.

Thus the fate of thinkers like the ‘Malaysian born’ Rafizi Ramli being threatened for suggesting reforms (oh the irony). Maybe if he proved it and make headlines on a greener pasture, only then he will be called back to ‘help build the nation’. And others like him even…..ah nvm. I do not wanna mess with the Kepara Nada and ‘Invisible Hand’.

Yours truly,
Citizen, Voter and Taxpayer…and ‘Malaysian born’.

P/s: And yes, (refering to the attached photo) I went in to see Lionel Richie in action afterward, and sang along to the song ‘Hello’.
Legendary.