Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities have not always found the country an easy place to live in. As in parts of India, the concept of bumiputera, or sons of soil, holds sway in government policies and is slanted towards Malays.
The largest anti-government protest by Indians against the government occurred last November, when a group of around 10,000 people converged in Kuala Lumpur after the government demolished some Hindu temples. Malaysia’s riot police fired at them with tear gas and water cannons.
This year, in the backdrop of Deepavali, Therakyat Post reported that a Facebook user, KD Murugan Selvam has decided to bridge the gap the way every good South Asian does: through film songs on Facebook.
The 1968 classic Malay film Gerimis, directed by Datuk Jamil Sulong and enacted by Tan Sri Dr P Ramlee and Chandra Shanmugam, is a rare depiction of an interracial love relationship between a Malay painter and a Tamil dancer. In this song in Malay and Tamil, the two gaze wistfully at a photograph of one and a painting of another and sing to the tune of Oh my Darling Clementine about how they wish they were together again.
The full film, for those who understand both Malay and Tamil without subtitles, is here.
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The largest anti-government protest by Indians against the government occurred last November, when a group of around 10,000 people converged in Kuala Lumpur after the government demolished some Hindu temples. Malaysia’s riot police fired at them with tear gas and water cannons.
This year, in the backdrop of Deepavali, Therakyat Post reported that a Facebook user, KD Murugan Selvam has decided to bridge the gap the way every good South Asian does: through film songs on Facebook.
The 1968 classic Malay film Gerimis, directed by Datuk Jamil Sulong and enacted by Tan Sri Dr P Ramlee and Chandra Shanmugam, is a rare depiction of an interracial love relationship between a Malay painter and a Tamil dancer. In this song in Malay and Tamil, the two gaze wistfully at a photograph of one and a painting of another and sing to the tune of Oh my Darling Clementine about how they wish they were together again.
The full film, for those who understand both Malay and Tamil without subtitles, is here.
