Prospek penapisan kendiri: Analisis wacana sinema serantau (The prospect of self-censorship: A discursive analysis of regional cinemas)

Abstract

Industri perfileman Malaysia kini dilihat memasuki fasa baru pengawalseliaan dalam konteks pelaksanaan sistem penapisan filem kendiri. Kini khalayak filem dari golongan kelas menengah Malaysia yang penting itu mungkin berdepan tuntutan yang lebih kuat dari sebelumnya dari badan pemantau. Industri kreatif pula akan semakin tercabar untuk mengawalselia kandungan dan matlamat produksi mereka. Persoalannya, sejauh manakah kedudukan titik kompromi dalam melaksanakan sistem penapisan filem kendiri? Hal ini kerana imaginari sosial filem dilihat semakin berkompromi nilai dan etika semasa dan logika sosiobudaya lokal. Di dalam makalah ini prospek persoalan ini dianalisis secara reflektif dalam konteks sinema serantau yang aktif iaitu Malaysia, Indonesia dan Thailand menerusi pendekatan analisis kritis wacana. Data empirikal dalam bentuk titik konvergens dan divergens dalam perlaksanaan dasar dan mekanisma penapisan filem memberikan pencerahan terhadap prospek penapisan filem kendiri yang semakin mencabar standard dan amalan penapisan perfileman di negara ini. Hasil analisis merumuskan inisiatif penapisan kendiri harus mampu mendidik pemain industri kreatif ini supaya melalui proses pembikinan filem yang berakauntabiliti dari aspek wajaran dan piawaian etika dan moral serta elemen-elemen naratif dan estetik yang dirasakan tidak berkonflik dengan empat teras sistem penapisan filem iaitu “keselamatan dan ketenteraman awam; keagamaan; sosiobudaya dan ketertiban dan ketatasusilaan” seperti yang diperingatkan oleh Lembaga Penapisan Filem selaku pihak berwajib.

Katakunci: globalisasi budaya, industri perfileman Malaysia, masyarakat kelas menengah, penapisan filem kendiri, sinema serantau, wacana sosiobudaya dan politik

Entering a new phase, the Malaysian film industry is seen to be increasingly engaged in the prospect of promoting and implementing film self-censorship practice. Effectively, the critical spectatorship comprising the Malaysian middle-class and even more so the industry players, will likely to be confronted with stronger demand for selfregulation from media regulating authorities in ensuring their content will not challenge censorship laws in trying to meet their own creative objectives. Given the reality of such constrains, one should begin negotiating for a prospective compromise because emerging contemporary social imaginary has the tendency to compromise local ethical values and sociocultural logic. In this article this prospect is explored across existing censorship policies and mechanisms in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The empirical data in the forms of convergences and divergences are discursively analysed so as to inform the prospect and challenges of film self-censorship practice in this country. The analysis results in the conclusion that self censorship in Malaysia would do well to educate the creative industry players in film making which accounts for the four narrative and esthetic standards set by the country’s Censorship Board, namely, public safety and peace, religious considerations, socio-cultural sensibilities, and modesty and decency.

Keywords: cultural globalisation, film self-censorship, Malaysian film industry, middle-class society, regional cinemas, sociocultural and political discourses